A Hole Where my Heart Should be
by FireThatFox
Summary: Sakura's parents died in a gruesome car accident two months before her third year of university and she isn't coping with it well. She finds comfort in a most unlikely source, the son of a well known international criminal, Akasuna no Sasori. Trigger alerts
1. Chapter 1

She led Naruto up to the second floor of the art building as promised into the studio she had her class in. There were a few students there working on their pieces. She led him to the corner of the room where her things were. She had looked around when they had entered to see if maybe Sasori was there, she was more curious than frightened by the news his dad was some international criminal. She knew to be careful but she wasn't as suspicious or as narrow minded as Sasuke. Just because his dad was a criminal didn't make Sasori one. She preferred to see the good in people. Uchiha were just suspicious by nature.

"It isn't done yet so don't judge it too harshly." She warned and pulled the cover off of her work.

It was a field, a battlefield. The landscape was done, open fields, a river through it, it was a valley, surrounded by high cliffs in the background. The banners of the two opposing clans fluttered in the wind, the outlines of the fighters were there, the detail of their armor and weapons yet to be completed. Cherry blossom trees were painted on the high cliffs their cherry blossoms falling over the, what would be carnage when she was finished.

"Whoa." Was all Naruto could say.

"It's um, it's different than what you usually paint Sakura. It's uh…" He couldn't find the right word, he didn't want to insult her and call it dark but...it was kinda dark.

"It's her." Came a lazy voice from behind, surprising them both.

Sakura and Naruto whipped around to find Sasori watching them with his steady amber eyes.

"Sasori!." Sakura put her hand to her chest. "You startled me." She laughed, slightly embarrassed.

Sasori didn't say anything, he just stood there looking at them, his eyes shifted to her painting.

"Hey, I'm Naruto, what did you say about Sakura's painting? It's her? What does that mean?" He asked the redhead. Maybe if Sakura heard it was dark and a little disturbing from a stranger it would make it easier.

"It means," Sasori said slowly as if talking to a small child and not another 19 year old. " That the vision depicts her reality." He said still not looking at either one of them, his eyes fastened to the painting.

"Depicts her what? That doesn't even make sense." Naruto rubbed the back of his head and frowned. He was confused. It certainly wasn't the answer he had thought the boy would say.

"Then you don't really know her," Sasori said it like it was a command instead of his opinion like it was an indisputable fact.

"I know her, we have been friends since we were six!" Naruto was getting ruffled, who did this guy think he was? Didn't know her, she may have moved away but he knew her. This guy is a jerk Naruto thought to himself.

"Sasori, that wasn't very nice, Naruto is one of my best friends. If we are in your way we will leave." She started to walk away but his voice stopped her.

"What do you see?" Sasori pointed to her painting, his amber eyes stilling her in place.

"A battlefield." She said flatly. Sasori had this way about him, it made her feel like he knew things about her that she might not know about herself as though he were watching her, it was unnerving.

"You lie." Sasori smiled then, a slow almost indecent smile. He knows it is hard to admit unwanted truths to yourself, he has many.

"Let's go Sakura, this guy is creeping me out." Naruto grabbed her hand and almost ran out the door.

Sasori didn't move as they left but stood there still looking at her painting. "I see the passion and loneliness in your heart...Sakura. We are surrounded by people and yet, we are still alone, so very alone, but not forever, not for long."

Sasori turned to his own painting then. He pulled the cover off of the canvas to reveal a woman, splattered in blood, mouth open in a scream, but not of terror, of lust and want, her arms above her head, held by invisible hands as her head, thrown back, chest pushed out as if she is struggling against her lover, hair wild behind her back, flared out and stuck to the blood on the wall behind her, pinkish white tresses stained blood red in spots.

"I see you...Sakura." He said as he picked up his brush to finish the piece. "I see you."

Naruto and Sakura waited outside of the Psyche building for his dad who was thier ride home.

"That guy is a little strange don't ya think Sakura? I mean what was that about, he is a little creepy ya know?" Naruto was saying to her.

"Yeah, a little, I don't think he meant to insult you though, it is just how he talks. He kinda reminds me of Sasuke. He doesn't think the way other people do I don't think he, he's just different is all, not a bad person though." She tried to defend Sasori, after all, he hadn't really done anything wrong. The feeling she had though when he had said it was her.

"It's her." His voice came back to her in her head.

That's what Sasori had said. It was her, and yes...she had lied.

It was her personality, her deepest secrets about herself. Of course, she had lied. The battlefield was her constant struggle to be who she wanted versus what was expected of her. The cherry blossom trees represented how the world saw her, a fragile girl who couldn't stand on her own, who needed the support of her friends and family.

The opposing warriors were the two different sides of her personality, the fighter in her, the passion, the wild versus the need for stability. The falling blossoms, her confusion on how to maintain both and still remain sane. So, of course, she had lied, that wasn't the issue. The issue was, what bothered her was, he saw what no one else could see. So clearly and had said it, so bluntly.

The truth was, she didn't know who she was now, she knew who she wanted to be but going from one point to the other, was easier said than done. Her parents were dead, they had both died in a gruesome car crash 2 months ago. She was still sorting through the house, going over legal papers, reminding herself to be strong. She wasn't a little girl anymore, she was a woman, and she needed to stand alone. None of her friends understood what she was going through, she was alone.

She didn't blame them, she knew it wasn't their fault. They had happy and healthy parents who were there for them, who were still alive. She didn't wish her misfortune on them, only a little more understanding. She didn't want sympathy, she wanted honesty. Honestly like Sasori's. It was harsh, it was bloody and brutal, but it was real. She respected him for that.

There was no hand holding, no excuses or sympathetic quirks of the mouth when he looked at her. He knew her parents had died recently, he had found her crying it the common room of the art building after class one day, in the corner. "Stop crying, it is a useless reaction, it benefits few and gets nothing done" is what he had said to her. At first, she was shocked, at first she was angry, who was this red headed asshole interfering with her grief. She had stood, her hands stiff at her side, her fists clenched ready to hit him. "Hit me." he had said, "Make me bleed." he had told her.

Sakura had collapsed in on herself at his words, had fallen back into the chair she had shot up from. He continued to stand over her, watch her, then sat beside her in the chair next to hers.

"This is not who you are, you are a warrior, act like it." a simple statement, that had a profound impact on her. She had always wanted to be a warrior. He had walked away after that leaving his email behind on a little slip of paper.

She had tried to thank him the next day in art class, he didn't say a word at her thanks, only took his canvass and moved it beside hers, took his paints and supplies, moved them by hers. They had been painting together ever since it was comforting. He was there, but he only talked if she wanted to, there were no false words between them, no extra words. He said exactly what he wanted her to hear, and she heard every word he said. With him, she didn't feel quite as, alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura sat on the steps of the art building waiting for Sasuke and Naruto to pick her up. She told them her class got out at 4 pm and it was now 4 pm, but they were nowhere to be seen. She sighed and pulled out her cell, yes, it was 4pm, and no, she didn't have any "We're running late" texts. She put her phone back in her pocket and pulled out a book from her bag, flipping to her dog ear she began to read.

A shadow fell over her, she looked up into the face of her art buddy.

"Hi, Sasori." She smiled at him.

"Why are you sitting here?" He asked her without greeting in his usual odd manner.

"I'm waiting for my ride, they're late."

"I can take you home." He offers.

"Oh, that's okay, I'm sure they'll be here soon."

"What are you reading?"

"The Art of War." She smiled sheepishly blushing.

"It suits you." He looks out over the parking lot.

Silence settles between them, he sits down beside her on the stairs.

"I'll wait with you." He says without looking at her.

"Oh okay, but why?" She doesn't want to be rude but she is a little curious as to why he would do such a thing.

"In case they don't come." He turns his amber eyes on her as though it ought to be obvious.

"That is thoughtful of you Sasori, thank you." She is a little touched, at most they were email buddies, and art buddy's but not really friends, maybe this was the start. She smiled and opened her book again.

Twenty minutes later Sasuke's black car pulls up in front of the stairs. Sasuke rolls the window down, "Hey Sakura."

Sakura glares at him, no, "I'm sorry for being late." no, "I meant to call but", nothing.

"What's wrong, get in the car?" Sasuke frowns at her.

"You're thirty minutes late," Sasori says before Sakura can stand.

"Who are you?" Sasuke gives the redhead a dirty look.

"Not late." Sasori cocks his head to the side as the red creeps up Sasuke's neck.

"What the hell, who the fuck is this guy Sakura?" Sasuke looks at Sakura who is staring open mouthed at Sasori.

"You already know him you said that his dad…" She began but Sasori stood up and interrupted her.

"I am Akasuna no Sasori, Uchiha, and I don't make people I care about wait for me." Sasori gave Sasuke an eye for an eye.

"Get in the car Sakura," Sasuke said without taking his eyes from Sasori.

Sakura turned to Sasori, "Thanks for waiting with me Sasori that was really kind of you. I'm sorry for um, Sasuke he's just uh." She trailed off, not sure how to describe Sasuke.

"A jerk." Sasori supplied the word she didn't want to say out loud.

She smiled and shrugged a little to Sasuke's annoyance.

"See you Monday Sasori." She smiled at him then got into Sasuke's car and they drove off.

Sasori stood on the steps and watched the car drive away. Fishing his own keys from his pocket he made his way to his own car and drove home.

"So, what, you're dating the son of an International criminal now? Uncle Madara is going to love that." Sasuke said sarcastically as they stopped at a red light.

"We aren't dating, we are just art buddies and we email one another art ideas sometimes, no biggie okay?" She pulled her bag onto her lap as the light turned green, her apartment was right around the corner.

Sakura could have walked home but the last time she had done that Sasuke didn't get the text message and freaked out when she wasn't there waiting for him and had called his dad, the chief of police, of Konoha. That's why she brought a book with her when she knew he would be picking her up. Fortunately, it was only ever on a Friday, not every Friday but when him or Naruto, or both came to visit her for the weekend from Konoha.

She had only moved one city over so the drive wasn't long. The distance provided her with enough of a change to feel like she was independent though, and that's what she needed right now.

"Wasn't Naruto coming with you?" She asked him as they pulled up to her apartment.

"Yea but he decided to stay behind this weekend, that's why I was late, he told me when I got to his mom's house. They were arguing about it and well, you know how Kushina is." Sasuke grinned.

"Did she throw anything at him?" Sakura grinned back at her childhood friend.

"Only a pair of socks, if you ask me, he got off easy this time." Sasuke chuckled.

"What happened?"

"Kushina caught Hinata and Naruto in bed together." He said succulently catching her eye.

They both burst out laughing.

"I wish I could have seen her face!" Sakura snorted.

"Twenty two shades of red," Sasuke smirked.

"Poor Naruto! Is Hinata mortified?" She asked.

"Oh yeah." Sasuke smiled.

It was just like old times, like before she had moved.

"It's nice having you here, come on, let's go inside." She smiled again.

Sakura's parents had been successful shop owners in Konoha. Sakura still owned the shop but she left the running of it to her best friend Ino whom she trusted. Several offers had come in after their deaths to buy it, but she didn't have the heart to sell it. Ino had dropped out of college after two bad semesters and offered to run it for her till she could make up her mind what she wanted to do with her life. It worked out for both of them.

Sasuke threw his overnight bag onto a chair in the living room and immediately went to the refrigerator.

"I don't have anything, we will need to go grocery shopping." She called from her bedroom as she unpacked her book bag.

Sasuke withdrew his head from her refrigerator with a guilty look on his face.

"Mom sent money with me, she told me not to eat you out of house and home." He handed her some money.

"Your mom is so thoughtful, I wonder why none of it rubbed off on you?' She fluffed his hair as she went into the kitchen for a glass of juice.

"It rubbed off on Itachi, not me, I got my dad's rugged good looks." He tried to smile but it came off as a conceited smirk.

Sakura tried not to but she pointed and laughed at him deflating his massive ego all in one move. "Haha, rugged good looks, hahahahaha."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" He was pouting.

"You are too pretty to have rugged good looks Sasuke, don't get me wrong, you're good looking to be sure but in a sophisticated, smoldering sort of hot, not rugged." She bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing more.

He glared at her.

She giggled.

He huffed.

She burst out laughing again.

"So, grocery shopping?" He put his hands in his pockets.

"Sure." She was still smiling too widely for his tastes as they walked out the door.

Traffic was light on the way to the grocery store and the store itself wasn't too busy. They strolled down the frozen food aisle stopping at the pizza roll section. Sasuke grabbed three bags of combination pizza rolls and she rolled her eyes.

"What?" He asked her.

"I swear you live off those things. Come on, let's go to the fresh produce I want to get some vegetables for stir fry." She smiled as he grimaced.

"I'll get the meat and meet you there, chicken or beef?" He asked.

"Shrimp." She smiled at the face he made.

"Chicken it is." He walked off in the opposite direction.

Sakura smiled as she made her way to the celery, picking out a bundle and adding it to the basket. Moving on to the zucchini she frowned, there wasn't a very good selection.

"Hum." She picked one up and turned it around, it had little knicks and cuts all over it.

"Don't get that one." A familiar drawling voice said from beside her.

"Here." A bag of two perfect zucchini made it into her line of sight.

"But, aren't those yours?" She asked Sasori.

"Now they are yours." He walked away.

"Hey!" She called after him.

Sasori turned around and quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Thank you, Sasori." She smiled at him.

He nodded and walked away, disappearing behind a cereal display.

Sasuke chose that moment to add one bag of frozen shrimp and one bag of frozen chicken to their cart.

"What's wrong?" He asked and leaned past her to see what she was looking at.

"Oh, um, nothing, ready?" She asked him.

"Beer." He said.

"Champaign." She countered.

"Both, my mom's buying." He grinned.

"Deal!" She smiled.

Sakura went to unlock the door to her apartment while Sasuke pulled the groceries from his car. As she was running back down the stairs to help him she saw Sasori climbing up the same stairs.

"Hey!" She smiled at him, "You live here?"

He nodded.

"Which apartment is yours?" She asked him.

"The one above yours."

"Mine?" She said looking up.

"Yes, you live right here." He pointed to her apartment door she had come out at the top of the stairs.

"How did you know that?"

"I saw you move in." He said.

"How come you never said anything?" She cocked her head to the side considering him.

"You never asked where I lived or told me where you lived." He pointed out.

"Oh, yeah I guess you're right." She laughed.

"Uh, excuse me, these are heavy here." Sasuke glared at her.

"Oh! Sasuke! I'm so sorry." Sakura reached out to grab some of the bags from him.

"I'm not complaining." Sasori commented, he had twice as many bags as Sasuke.

Sakura giggled.

"Anyway, let's go inside Sakura." Sasuke moved past Sasori and Sakura up the stairs to her apartment.

Sakura smiled and apologized to Sasori and ran after Sasuke.

Sasori stood on the stairs and watched her until her door closed.


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura plugged the patio lights into the light socket as Sasuke brought thier plates out and set them on the table.

"Did you want your champagne now or after dinner Sakura?"

"After."

"Want me to grab you a soda then?"

"Please."

Sasuke walked back inside and returned with a soda and a beer.

"This is nice." Sakura looked around her balcony. "I like how the lights aren't too bright and cast shadows on the glass top of the table." She smiled

"You really like it here don't you?" He asked her.

"I needed a change Sasuke, but yes, I do like it here. It suits me." She took a bite of her stir fry.

"How long do you plan on being here?" He picked out a piece of carrot and put it on the side of his plate.

"At least through the college year, there isn't much sense in leaving before then. I might stay for good though, who knows, or till I graduate." She took a sip of her soda.

"Konoha has the best medical program, you know that you'll be back," Sasuke said confidently.

"Maybe I don't want to be a doctor anymore." She ate a piece of shrimp.

"What? You've always wanted to be a doctor. You'll be back. I know you." Sasuke took another bite of his food and hummed.

"This is really good Sakura." He said surprised and she glared at him.

"One time, one time I burned the rice and now you and Naruto think I can't cook anything, sheesh." She stuffed another bite fo food in her mouth.

"Well, who doesn't know how to cook rice." He mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." He took a drink of his beer.

"Anyway, I like it here, you don't have to worry about me okay?"

"But you don't know anyone here, don't you get, I don't know, bored?"

"I know Sasori." She pointed out.

"Ah yes, the son of the International criminal," Sasuke said sarcastically.

"I know what your family does Sasuke, don't think I'm as oblivious as Naruto." She gave him a pointed look and he looked away.

"We don't sell drugs to kids." He tried to defend his clan.

"Maybe not but your clan has thier hand in a lot of things that are just as bad. Besides, maybe Sasori isn't involved with whatever his father does." She wasn't stupid.

"Arms dealing isn't that bad Sakura." Sasuke was getting annoyed. Selling drugs to kids, [utting innocent people at risk, that was criminal, he didn't consider what his family did as criminal behavior...he might be a little biased though.

"I know that's not all your family does, don't even try to lie to me Uchiha."

"Don't talk about things you don't understand Sakura, and even if Sasori doesn't have his hand in the family business, he grew up in it, people from "That world" know his face, know his name, he can't escape it." He was starting to get angry. She might think she knew what his family did but she was wrong, she had no idea and he was going to keep it that way.

"Whatever." She rose to take her now empty plate inside.

"You want another beer?" She asked him taking his almost empty plate and frowning at the row of uneaten carrots along the side.

"Yeah."

Sakura opened her bottle of champaign that she had put in the freezer and grabbed a beer and a flute from her china cabinet. Sasuke was leaning over the railing when she made her way back out to the balcony.

"Here." She handed him his beer and took a sip of her champagne.

"Hn."

They stood there leaning over the rail looking out into the woods in silence.

"Ino misses you Sakura," Sasuke said after awhile.

"I miss her too."

"Come home."

"I can't, I don't want to, not yet Sasuke. I need to be here on my own, at least for a little bit." She sighed, he didn't understand.

"You could move into the compound, mom would love you living with us. She always calls you the daughter that she never had. Sometimes I think she likes you more than Itachi and I." He huffed a little.

"I'm not moving back Sasuke, at least not anytime soon, if at all. If I moved into the compound, I wouldn't be on my own." She watched the sunset in the west.

"I don't get you."

"Exactly, you don't, just leave it alone." She drank the rest of her champagne and went to refill her glass.

Sasuke was sitting back at the table when she returned.

"Is it because of me? Did you move to get away from me?" He asked her.

"Yes, and that's why you're here right now, my plan worked wonderfully...idiot." She laughed and drank more.

"Why did you move, you never really explained it to us, you just said that it was something you had to do."

Sakura sighed. "I just, everyone in Konoha knows me."

"So?"

"So, I wanted to go somewhere no one knew me." She said exasperated with this conversation.

"Does it have to do with your parent's deaths, is that why you want to be somewhere no one knows you?" He asked finishing his second beer.

"Partly, I'm sick of the sympathy, the looks, the whispering. Partly because when they died I realized...I haven't done anything, ever. I haven't lived, I have only existed. I want more than that, I want to live." She looked at him.

"I think I understand."

He was trying, she could tell. It meant a lot coming from him. Sasuke was a great guy but he was also a very selfish, self absorbed sort of person. He didn't mean to be that way, she knew, it was hard for him, being the second, younger brother to Itachi Uchiha, who was...a strategic genius.

"I'm going to get another beer, you want me to bring your bottle?"

"Please."

He laughed, "We should have gotten more beer and more champagne."

"There is another bottle and another six pack in the pantry. I bought them after we had made plans for the weekend."

He laughed," Good one Haruno."

"Put my champagne in the fridge, I'm not going to drink two bottles in one night." She laughed.

"Are you sure? It might make things more fun." Sasuke grinned at her.

"Not a chance pretty boy Uchiha. We're just friends now remember."

"You broke up with me...I still wanted to go out with you." He called from the kitchen.

"Yeah well, then you shouldn't have gone home with that loud and obnoxious redhead at Naruto's summer party." She called back to him.

"I told you nothing happened Sakura, why won't you believe me?" He came back out to the balcony eyes heated.

"She sent me the pictures of you two making out asshole." Sakura countered.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

They sat in silence for a little bit.

"Do you hate me?" He asked her quietly.

"If I did, you wouldn't be here in my apartment, no I don't hate you, but I don't love you anymore." She looked past him to the woods.

"I'm sorry Sakura. I didn't mean to." He started but she cut him off.

"Save it Sasuke, I don't even care anymore." She downed the rest of her glass and poured the rest of the bottle into her flute.

Sasuke opened his sixth beer and sat quietly beside her.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"I really am sorry. What we had was great and I messed it all up. I have regretted it ever since. Once...once I sobered up...I realized what I had done. I felt terrible. Karin, she."

Sakura stood up, "Do not say that name in my home."

"Okay okay, I'm sorry, I just want you to know, we aren't together, it wasn't like." He stopped, he didn't know what to say.

"I told you, I don't care."

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't get mad when I said her name." He shrewdly pointed out.

"Fuck you Sasuke. I'm going to bed. Sleep on the couch, be gone before I get up and do me a favor, don't call me for a while." She left him on her balcony and stormed inside.

Sasuke sighed and stood there drinking his beer looking up at the night's sky.

"I meant it Sakura. I really am sorry. I love you." He said to himself. Sighing again he went to make up the couch for bed.

Sasori sat quietly on his balcony, he heard the sliding glass door to Sakura's apartment close. He rose carefully from his sitting position and went back inside his own apartment, sliding his sliding glass door shut with an inaudible click.

Sakura got out of bed the next morning and went about her usual routine. As she passed by the couch she saw the blankets had been folded and the pillow was on top. She smiled. She knew if they hadn't had that little argument the blankets would be on the floor, the pillow probably half on half off the couch or shoved into it.

Sakura filled the coffee maker with water and pressed the button. While she waited for her brew she checked her emails on her laptop at her lunch bar.

She had one new email from Ino, one from Hinata and, she smiled, one from Sasori. She read Ino's email, apparently, she had a new man in her life named Sai and he was wonderful and hot and everything she had ever wanted. Same story, different guy. Sakura rolled her eyes and opened the email from Hinata. Hinata told her how Kushina had walked in on Naruto and her having sex, how she had screamed and demanded a wedding date among other things, and that the wedding was next month...Sakura had the read the sentence twice before it sunk in. Naruto and Hinata were getting married.

"Holy shit." She said out loud.

It was a little soon but not completely unexpected. Hinata had been in love with Naruto since they were all 5years old and running around the Konoha playground like wild animals. Naruto had taken a lot longer to see how much he cared for the girl but once he had, it was like lightning striking. They were meant for one another. She sighed, rose to get a cup for her coffee and tried very hard not to be jealous of thier devotion to one another.

Sakura opened the email from Sasori. She smiled, he was always straight to the point, never one to waste words. His email read:

Art exhibit. Looks interesting. Go with me. Pick you up at 8 pm. Black and White.

Sasori

She hit reply:

See you at 8 pm.

Sakura


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura smoothed down the front of her dress for the fourth time in the last 7 minutes. She turned to check the clock on her wall, 7 Pm. She turned back to her full-length mirror, checking her dress, hair, and makeup again.

She couldn't remember the last time she went to a formal event, oh yes she did, with Sasuke. His family hosted the Konoha Winter Festival Ball every year and for the last three years, she had gone as his date. She bit her lip, that had been months ago and she had known Sasuke all her life...and his family.

This was different, this was a date. Wait, was this a date? Maybe he was asking her as a friend? He hadn't said. She bit her lip again," Oh no, I'm going to make a fool of myself aren't I?" She said to her reflection. She could have sworn she saw the bitch nod.

Sakura turned from her mirror to her clutch and her heels on her bed. She would wait to put on her heels till it was closer to 8 pm. She checked her clutch, money, I.D, phone and a book knife Sasuke had given her on their 1 yr anniversary. Satisfied she had everything she needed she picked up her heels and her clutch dropped them off on the stand by her front door and sat down carefully on her couch.

She hoped her dress wouldn't wrinkle as she opened her book.

Fifty minutes later a soft knock drew her from her reading. She rose, setting her book on her coffee table and answered the door.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at him. Warranted she had only ever seen him in jeans and tee shirts or slacks and a polo shirt, but nothing could have prepared her for the dashing spectacle before her.

His suit was a designer flat black, his french cuffs were linked with diamond cuff links to his black silk shirt. He wore no vest but the smooth silk tie hung a stark white to its black background. Sasori stood there surveying her placidly. He took in her white bodice top that fell into a feathered black dusting of a short skirt in front, cut back from long panels of black silk that followed her legs to the floor.

Sakura smiled remembering herself. "Good evening Sasori."

"Sakura." He nodded.

She leaned against the wall and strapped her small heels on, grabbed her clutch and locked her door stepping out onto the foyer next to him.

His eyes raked over her body once more before he offered her his arm. She slipped her arm in his and they made their way down the stairs to his car. Sasori opened the door for her and she smiled at him as she slipped into the smooth leather seat.

For the brief moment it took him to walk to the diver's side of the vehicle she wondered, did he find her as attractive as she found him right now? He hadn't complimented her on her dress, but of course, she hadn't complimented him on his suit. She shook her head slightly, not all men were as vain as Sasuke she reminded herself.

Sasori turned the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

"The showing isn't until 9 pm, I'm afraid I have to show up just before opening to go over a few things with the gallery. It will be brief, after which you will have my full and undivided attention." He assured her as they pulled onto the on-ramp to the freeway.

"Of course Sasori, are you helping to run the event?" She asked.

"Of sorts." He agreed to her statement vaguely.

She hummed her interest and watched the lights of the city come into view.

"It's in Konoha?" She asked him seeing they were getting off at the Konoha city exit.

"Yes, downtown."

She fidgeted with her clutch, downtown, next to the police station. She knew the gallery well. This was a black and white event...would the Uchiha be there? She bit her bottom lip nervously.

"Is something wrong?" Sasori glanced over at her, noting how white her knuckles on her clutch were where she had it in a death grip.

"No, sorry, uh, no." She stammered.

"Sakura, don't lie to me." He said quietly.

"Don't hide from me." He said more gently.

"Oh uh, okay, I'm sorry, I am just worried that I am going to run into people I know." She told him truthfully.

"The Uchiha?" He knew.

"Yes."

"It is a possibility, but I hear most of them failed to RSVP, so most will not be in attendance." He tried to reassure her.

Her grip on her clutch lessened partially as he pulled into the gallery, up the winding drive to the front by the valet.

"We don't have to stay long if you are uncomfortable, I really think you will enjoy the art though." He waited, ignoring the valet outside of his window for her to answer.

"Ah no, I'm sorry, it is silly of me." She tried to smile at him.

Sasori nodded and turned to his door, the valet opened the door and another opened Sakura's door. They stepped out of the car, Sasori handing the keys to the first valet and taking Sakura's hand tucking it into his arm and pulling her close to his body.

"Enjoy your evening Mr. Akasuna." The valet bowed as Sasori passed. Sasori either hadn't heard him or ignored him as they walked by, up the stairs and into the open lights of the gallery.

Sakura looked around, hardly anyone else was there. A small woman in white rushed up to her and Sasori a wide smile on her face.

"Mr. Akasuna, you're here, wonderful wonderful. Please come with me." The woman tried to take him by his arm but he pulled away. Nothing daunted she just grinned at him and led the way out of the main hall back into the more private area of the gallery. Sakura knew it to be where the artist being recognized for their work was interviewed before a showing. Her heart skipped a beat. This showing, it was Sasori's. His hand came up to cover hers when her grip on his arm tightened fractionally.

"If you are uncomfortable, you could wait here if you like." He stopped so she could sit on one of the many chairs that lined the more intimate showcases they had passed.

"This is your showing isn't it?" She asked him.

"I wanted to share it with you." He said.

His words were simple and few but they said much.

"So, this is a date?" She smiled.

"Was that not clear?" He asked her cocking his head to the side.

"No, but it is now. I'll wait here if you don't mind?" She smiled at him as he nodded.

"I won't be long." He promised and left to follow the now impatient small woman who was glaring at Sakura.

Sakura watched him walk around the corner and then turned to her surroundings. There were paintings on the wall of flowers. She never understood that. Who cares about flowers enough to paint them? If she wanted to look at flowers she would buy some or go out to a field to look at wild flowers. She would never understand why this was considered art.

She walked slowly up one wall of the private area and then down another as it curved around the corner. More flowers. She scoffed, did this artist know how to paint anything but flowers, she mused as she looked at another painting of colorful flowers. They all looked alike for kami's sake.

"Not to your liking?" A slow deep voice asked her from behind.

Sakura turned slowly to look at the owner of the voice, the familiar deep voice.

"Madara." She smiled.

"You look ravishing Sakura." he purred as he came up next to her and looked at the painting she had been looking at.

"Yes, I see what you mean." He said.

"I didn't say a thing." She grinned at him.

This was a game they played. He would pretend to know her thoughts and she would pretend he was correct. More often than not, he was.

"Your less than subtle scoffing said it all love." He turned to her then and took in her dress, her hair, her heels.

"I meant it, you look absolutely ravishing, Love." he stepped closer to her placing a large warm hand at the small of her back leaning into her space.

A cough from behind him, "Am I interrupting?"

Sakura tensed slightly, Madara with his hand on her back felt it and turned quickly to the younger man.

"You are." Madara rose to his substantially taller height and looked down on the boy.

"Am I? Sasori asked, leaning a little to the left so that he was directly in Sakura's line of sight.

"What is this?" Madara looked from Sasori to Sakura.

"It was a date until you interrupted.' Sasori drawled at the older man, not at all intimidated by the Uchiha that had most men cowering in his presence.

"A date?" Madara looked down at Sakura who blushed.

"No, Sakura, do you know who he is he's…" Madara stopped speaking when she placed a small but firm hand on his chest.

"This is Sasori, he is in my art class, at the university. Yes, it is a date. It was nice seeing you Madara, please give my regards to the family, I will see you soon. Perhaps next weekend."

She smiled and walked to where Sasori was waiting, his arm out. She stepped into his embrace, his arm snaked around her waist drawing her possessively to his side and they walked around the corner. Sasori looked back once, to smirk in Madara's face before they disappeared from view.

Madara stood there his fist clenched into a ball. He pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Sasuke. Why is Sakura at the gallery with Akasuna no Sasori?" Madara growled at his nephew.

"What?"

"You heard me boy, I thought you warned her about him." Madara paced back and forth as he gripped his phone.

"I did but they go to school together, he lives upstairs from her, wait did you say the gallery, she is on a date with him?" Sasuke's voice was getting louder.

"Yes. Now I understand you weren't mature enough to keep a woman like her but I thought you were a good enough friend not to let her date our clan's rival's son." Madara hung up the phone.

Sasori ushered Sakura out into the main gallery where his show would take place. Lifting two glasses from a passing waiter he handed one to her and inclined his head.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting." The look in his eye betrayed the courtesy of his words.

"There is a history there, between your family and the Uchiha, that I am not a part of, nor do I wish to be." She said pointedly.

"If you become collateral damage Sakura, it will not be because of me." His response was not very reassuring.

"Collateral damage…" She looked at him curiously.

"I am not my father Sakura," Sasori said softly to her as he brushed a lock of hair from her face.

"Oh, well, good." She blushed and looked away.

The main doors of the gallery opened and people began filing in one after another in twos and threes. Sasori made a small groaning noise in the back of his throat.

"What is it?" Sakura asked him.

"I don't like crowds." He admitted.

"Look at them, milling around, like rats in a cage." His eyes narrowed at the humanity flooding in around them.

Sakura laughed bringing him out of his rut. He had seemed to have forgotten she was there as he glared down at the masses, like some evil puppetmaster. Bloodlust flooded his mind. His fingers twitched and he gripped his hand into a fist, resisting the urge. A small hand fell over his and he blinked.

"Sasori." Sakura's voice brought his head to hers. Bloodlust receding inch by inch as he looked at her face.

"Show me your art." She smiled at him.

"Of course." He nodded taking her hand and tucking it into his arm once again.

With a fake smile plastered to his lips, he led the way to the main floor, nodding to his fellow elites as they passed, stopping for a small word here and there.

Finally stopping in a far corner of the room by some of his art displayed on a black backdrop with dim lighting.

"Oh." Sakura gasped as she stood before the first piece.

It was a woman, but not a woman. It was fear. Her face was distorted in a scream, her hands clawing at her cheeks, streaks of blood flowing over nail and skin. The form of her killer reflected in her wide eyes. The skin taut with strain, the lines deepened by stress.

"Do you know what it is Sakura?" Sasori asked her.

"Fear," Sakura whispered, the words barely from her lips before his mouth curved into a smile.

"And this one?" He turned her with his arm.

A woman, splattered in blood, mouth open in a scream, but not of terror, of lust and want, her arms above her head, held by invisible hands as her head, thrown back, chest pushed out as if she is struggling against her lover, hair wild behind her back, flared out and stuck to the blood on the wall behind her, pinkish white tresses stained blood red in spots.

"Desire."

"Yes." Sasori drew her closer with his arm. "Desire."

Sakura stood there next to him, against him and looked. Maybe it was the lighting, maybe it was her imagination but the woman in the last picture it looked, like her. A shiver went through her body.

"You're cold. We can leave." Sasori led her back to the front of the gallery.

"One moment." Sasori dropped his arm from her waist. When she turned he was gone.

"Sakura, let me drive you home," Madara spoke from beside her.

"We were just leaving, it isn't necessary Madara, but thank you for the offer." She smiled politely at her best friend's uncle.

"Yes, Uchiha. We were just leaving." Sasori took Sakura's hand and tucked it under his arm drawing her toward the door.

"I'm watching you Akasuna!" Madara called after them.

"I know." Sasori pulled Sakura closer to him as he handed his slip to the valet.

"We don't have to leave because of me." Sakura protested.

"You saw what I wanted you to see." Sasori stepped forward opening the door for her himself when their car was ready.

"Fear and desire?" She asked.

"Exactly." He shut the car door and walked to the other side handing a bill to the valet without looking at him.

Sakura thought about what he had said when they had gotten into his car. Fear and desire. Why would he want her to see those specifically, she knew there had been ten other paintings there that she hadn't seen.

"Sasori?"

"Yes?'

"Why fear and desire?"

"It is what drives you the most," he told her.

"How do you know?"

"I can see it in you."

"In me"

"Yes." he said.

"How?"

"Your words, your actions, now."

"You see fear and desire in me now?" she asked timidly.

"Yes."

"Explain."

"Your desire to know why I did what I did, your fear that you don't know what drives me to do what I do."

"Oh."

"Am I wrong Sakura?"

"No."

"Sasori?

"Yes?"

"Thank you for tonight."

"Tonight isn't over Sakura."


	5. Chapter 5

Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.

Sakura has never seen so many stairs.

"Sasori, I'm in heels." She looks at the stairs, she is never going to make it up to the top.

"Are we going to the top?" She asks.

"Yes." He bends down and starts to unlace her heels.

"But." She starts to protest, her hand on his back for balance.

"It will be worth it." He takes her heels in one hand and twines his fingers in her other.

"I want to show you something." He tugs her hand and she starts to climb the stairs beside him.

"Sasori." She says after, she doesn't know how many levels.

"Almost there." He says and tugs her hand again.

"There had better be food up there."

He chuckles quietly beside her as they continue to climb.

"Finally." She resists the urge to bend over in her formal dress but she wishes she could because there is a stitch in her side she needs to stretch.

"Close your eyes." He looks at her to comply.

Sakura hesitates for a moment but then closes her eyes. Sasori smiles wide and looks her over.

"Sasori?"

"Just a moment." He says as his eyes roam her body slowly.

"Come." he pushes the door open.

"Keep your eyes closed." He warns, pulling her out of the stairwell into the night air, positioning her just so.

"Open your eyes Sakura."

"Wow." She covers her mouth.

Dinner is laid out on a glass tabletop with white chairs. There are two serving carts with candles and wine, flowers decorating the tower patio and Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, playing in the background.

"Sasori." Sakura looked around at the lights, the candles, and the music, dinner looked incredible, the stars...

"It really is a date." She whispered.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Sasori smirked at her.

"When you asked me, you didn't say as friends or anything, and we had met in art class, it was a gallery, I didn't know." She tried to explain.

"Do you need labels for everything?" He asked her pulling the chair out for her.

"No, but sometimes it helps." She smiled at him as he sat down across from her.

Sasori picked the bottle of wine up off the cart and poured some into her glass.

"For taste." He brought his glass to his lips and sipped it.

"I chose pasta and a fish." He said as he served her.

"This is beautiful Sasori, no one has ever done something like this for me before." She smiled at him the candlelight making her eyes sparkle.

"Pity." He said taking her hand.

"What?"

"You deserve it." He said running his thumb over the smoothness of her knuckles while they ate.

"This is kinda fancy for me." She blushed.

"I don't think so." He took another sip of his wine.

Sakura blushed again and bit her bottom lip selfconsciously. His eyes followed the gesture.

"Do you do many gallery showing Sasori?" Sakura asked in between mouthful of tender fish.

"No." He looked out over the night sky away from her.

"Very few." He added.

"I am impressed, my work isn't good enough for a gallery." She looked down at her plate ruefully.

"Nonsense, your work is very good." He cocked his head tot he side as he watched her eat.

"It's not." She protested.

"It's you, it's beautiful Sakura." He told her, fingers curling around hers.

Sakura didn't know what to say. Did he mean her art was beautiful or that she was beautiful?

After they were done eating Sasori led her to the other side of the balcony where cushions and blankets were laid out.

"I like to come up here and watch the stars sometimes, it is...peaceful." He laid out one of the blankets of the cushions and sat down. Sakura dropped tot he ground beside him on the blanket but he motioned her to sit in front of him, between his legs.

"Rest your back up against my chest, I want to look at the stars with you." He pulled her in front of him, tucking her in between his knees and wrapping his arms around her neck and shoulders.

"What building is this Sasori?" She asked turning slightly to look at him brushing her lips across his cheek by accident.

"My family owns the building but I use it the most, mostly for the roof." He laughed a low sort of laugh almost inaudible but she felt the vibration of his chest on her back and she giggled.

"It is beautiful Sasori and you're right, it is very peaceful." She sighed and leaned back against him and his arms tightened around her as his chin rested on her shoulder.

"It's hard to see the stars because of all the lights of Konoha, but over here, it is darker, denser and less inhabited. That's what I like about it the most." He confided in her.

"I used to sit in my window when I was a little girl and look out at the night's sky instead of going to bed. I used to wonder what it would be like if I could jump out of my window and fly up into the stars." She smiled as she told him about one of her dreams when she was little.

"I used to dream that the stars would fall from the sky and set the world on fire. Then like a Phoenix, the world would be born anew, without greed, or corruption." He reciprocated the sentiment.

"That would be wonderful." She hummed her approval.

"As would yours Sakura." his voice was low, sultry.

Sakura shifted in her seat to get more comfortable then stopped, she was comfortable with Sasori. None of her usual chitter to cover her nerves, none of her anxiety, wan=rranted she had a little in the beginning but now, it was like they were old friends. It was nice.

"Sasori."

"Hum?"

"Thank you for bringing me here. I'm having a wonderful time. It's perfect." She smiled at him as he tilted his head to her, his cheek grazing her cheek.

"You're welcome Sakura. I knew you would appreciate it." He kissed the side of her neck.

Sakura sighed.

"Can I, kiss you more Sakura, would you like that?" He asked her gently.

"Yes." she breathed out.

He brought one hand up and smoothed the hair from her neck, laying soft kisses down the side of her neck to her throat, then back up and around to her ear.

"Sasori." She mewled.

"Your skin is so soft, so delicate Sakura, so fair." He flicked his tongue out across her jaw and kissed his way down the side of her neck, over her shoulder then down her upper arm.

"Mhm." She sighed then shivered as a breeze caught the wet from his kisses.

"Are you cold, let me take you home if you're ready?" He kissed her shoulder one more time.

"Yes, thank you, Sasori." He stood and helped her up to her feet.

"Let's take the elevator down." He picks up her shoes and smiles wickedly at her.

"Elevator?" She glares at him.

"What, of course, the tower has an elevator." His lips twitched as her face turned red.

"I hate you."

He smiles as he follows her to the other side of the stairwell to the elevator that she should have known was there.

"I would like to take you out again," Sasori tells her on thier drive home.

He reaches over and takes her hand out of her lap twining his fingers with hers and holds it on the middle console between them.

"I would like that." She smiled at him.

Sakura smiles at thier joined hands as they pull into their apartment parking lot.

"Let me get the door for you." He gets out and walks to her side of the car to open the door for her.

Tucking her hand in his arm they walk up the stairs together to her apartment.

"Thank you Sasori, I had a wonderful evening." She smiles at him, her hand still in his.

"I'll text or email you about our next date." He pulls her hand around his back to bring her closer and kisses her gently on the side of her lips, moving slowly with his tongue over the seam of her lips and pushing his tongue into her mouth when she breathed in.

"Sasori." She moved into him, her mouth opening slightly to deepen the kiss.

Her door flew open and Sasuke stepped out of her apartment.

"Sakura where the hell have you been!" He glares at Sasori.

Sakura steps back from Sasori to glare at Sasuke.

"What the hell are you doing here and how did you get into my apartment!" Her hands are on her hips.

"I was worried about you, my uncle called me to make sure you got home okay but you weren't answering your phone so I came over to check on you but you weren't home." He continued to glare at Sasori.

"It must be a family trait." Sasori drawled over Sakura's shoulder.

"All you damn Uchiha, always interrupting," Sasori sighed.

"I'm sorry Sasori, it was a beautiful evening, text me okay?" She smiled apologetically at the redhead.

"You have nothing to apologize for." Sasori pulled her to him and kissed her on the mouth, his hand flat and openly splayed across her bare back pressing her mouth into his.

Sasuke shifted angrily behind Sakura. Sasori looked up at Sasuke, his mouth covering Sakura's and smirked at the Uchiha before breaking the kiss.

"If you need me. I'm right upstairs." Sasori tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and smiled at her before smirking one last time in Sasuke's face and turning to go up the stairs to his apartment.

"Why the hell did my uncle call me and tell me you were at the gallery in Konoha with him?" Sasuke yelled at her as she shut the door to her apartment.

"Uh because I was there with him. Your uncle made it clear he didn't like Sasori at the gallery, why the hell did he call you to come over?" She fumed.

"Because he was worried about you! I told you, that guy's dad is an international criminal, they sell drugs to kids Sakura!" Sasuke was yelling again.

"Would you please lower your voice!" She yelled at him.

"Just call your uncle and tell him I'm home okay.." She walked past him into her kitchen and pulled the whiskey from her freezer.

"You drive me to drink!" She poured out two shots and handed him one.

Sasuke eyed the shot with distaste.

"Take the damn shot and loosen up, pull that stick out of your ass. You can crash on the couch." She poured two more shots after he took his first.

Sasuke pulled his phone out before he took his next shot and called his uncle. Sakura opened her sliding glass door and leaned against her railing looking out into the forest.

"Fucking Uchiha." She grumbled and took her other shot.

Sasuke joined her holding his shot glass out for her to pour him another, which she did.

"Okay, that's three shots to the good Uchiha. Now tell me, what is the big deal about Sasori, he was a perfect gentleman to me tonight. It was a really good date." She slammed her shot and looked at him expectantly.

He downed his shot cringed at the flavor.

"It's whiskey Sasuke not a pina colada." She laughed at him.

"You know I don't drink that crap." He growled, but without heat, he was calming down.

"You look really beautiful tonight." He looked her up and down, sliding his arm around her waist.

Sakura swooshed the whiskey around in the bottle, ignoring his comment as well as his arm.

"The whiskey reminds me of Sasori's eyes." She hummed to herself.

"Oh please, you used to tell me my eyes looked like the pieces of coal on the snowmen in our village we used to make every winter," Sasuke laughed remembering.

"I was what 6 years old asshole." She laughed with him.

"Sasori isn't right for you Sakura, you'll get hurt if you hang around him, don't get too close, that's all I'm saying." Sasuke slurred and she poured him another shot.

"Who is good enough for me Sasuke, you?" She laughed.

"Well, maybe, give me another chance Sakura. I promise I won't let you down this time." He put his arm around her and she leaned into him.

"Sasuke, you know it isn't a good idea." She took another shot.

"You still love me, I can tell." He tried.

"Of course I still love you, but I'm not in love with you anymore." She said gently.

"Sakura." He was begging.

"You broke my heart Sasuke, you're not loyal." She said quietly.

"And you think Sasori will be?" Sasuke said incredulously.

"It was one date Sasuke, geez, what is your problem?"

"I know you Sakura, I know you don't kiss, I mean literally kiss, on the first date. You like him...a lot." He sounded so dejected, she almost felt guilty.

"If I'm being honest, yeah I do like him a lot. He is thoughtful and romantic and he holds the door open for me." She smiled remembering her date that night.

"He's old fashioned and sweet." She hummed into her empty shot glass.

"Sweet? He is a murder, he has killed people for his father before Sakura." Sasuke was slurring his words more and more.

"Go to bed Sasuke, you know where everything is. I want my key back that you made without telling me." She shooed him inside and leaned against her railing alone.

Sakura looked out over the tops of the trees to the stars and thought of the tower and Sasori. She tilted her head back and looked at the floor to the balcony above her and smiled.

"Sasori." She said quietly to herself.

"Oh Sasuke, maybe we would still be together if you hadn't cheated on me with the loud mouthed whore Karin. I'm not a fool. That isn't love." She sighed and pour the rest of the bottle into her shot glass.

"Maybe I don't know what love is." She laughed and went back into her apartment to get ready for bed.

Sasori sat on his balcony and smiled. "I enjoyed being with you tonight too Sakura."


	6. Chapter 6

"So," Shisui grinned at Sakura as she drove down the main road of Konoha enjoying her new car. "I hear you went on a date with Akasuna no Sasori last night." Shisui teased her.

"I did, it was...it was like something out of a movie Shisui." She smiled dreamily.

Shisui lifted his brows high above his eyes, he hadn't expected that.

"So he took you to the gallery, what else?" Shisui really wanted to know now, Sakura was kinda hard to impress with grand gestures.

"We left the gallery soon after we arrived, he took me to a tower his family owns and after a million stairs, he had dinner laid out on a glass table, music in the background, wine on ice and candles everywhere." She turned to look at him since they were at a stoplight.

Shisui had to admit that it was pretty sly. He took in the blush on her cheeks, the glow in her eyes...she was falling, hard.

Shisui cleared his throat.

"I know what Sasuke did, he is an idiot, but Sasori, I know Sasuke told you and Madara told you but hear me out. He is a killer Sakura, that is a fact. He might not be a part of everything his father is, he might want to run things differently than him but Sakura, he is part of our world, not yours." Shisui said kindly.

"Your world." She hit the accelerator when the light turned green.

"I'm not a little girl anymore Shisui, nor am I a stupid one. I know your family, you, Itachi and Sasuke, all of you have tried to shield me, tried to keep me from hearing, seeing and knowing what it is your family does, who you are. I know." She gripped the wheel and turned into a park.

"I know about the gun running, the torture, the money laundering. I know about the casinos, the hotels, the properties around the world. I'm not blind and I'm not deaf." She parked the car away from the others in the parking lot.

"Let's go for a walk." She unbuckled her belt and got out of the car.

Shisui sighed and followed her.

"Tell me I'm wrong Shisui, tell me you and Itachi didn't assassinate the elder Hyuga last year on his birthday, in front of his family." She glared at him.

"How did you…" He started

"I told you, I know!" She raised her voice as they walked alone down an empty trail.

"I know that it was you who took me home after beating all those bums up at the bar two months ago after I passed out from the drug they slipped me, I know it was Itachi who set the bar on fire as we drove away." She kept going.

"I know more than you or your family think Shisui, stop treating me like a child. I'm not a little girl anymore.

She stood before him, her hands on her hips glaring up at him.

"No, you're not. I didn't know you knew so much though." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and watched her.

"There are still a lot of things you don't know Sakura." He said slowly.

"I'm sure there is but I don't care, I love you guys and I know you love me. I don't care about that stuff, just like I don't care that Sasori is part of your world, that world. I can be part of both of your worlds and mine at the same time." She looked up at him with confident green eyes.

Shisui looked down at her, took her hand and kissed her. "Did you know I have wanted you to be mine since before you ever fell in love with Sasuke but you were too young for me so I waited, then you and Sasuke started dating, did you know it killed me to see you with him? Now you're broken up, and I thought, now I can tell her, but then I hear you are dating Sasori, Sasori who killed our uncle Izuna Sakura. He maybe be everything we are but Sakura, he is also the one who killed our uncle." Shisui kissed her again hard.

"Shisui!" She pushed him away.

"You just met him, give me a chance to show you how much I care about you. We have known one another for years, that has to count for something." Shisui still had her hand in his and was trying to pull her into another kiss.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend this morning Shisui before we left for Konoha." She felt terrible telling him.

Shisui sighed. "You're loyal, I get it." He dropped her hand and grinned at her.

"If it doesn't work out though?" He winked at her and she laughed.

"You'll be the first person I call." She promised.

Shisui nodded. "Good. Still, think about what I said Sakura."

"Who have we killed Shisui, how many have we killed of his family?" She was trying to make a point he knew, just as he heard her say "we" and not "your family".

"Too many." He admitted openly.

"When does it end?" She asked them resuming their walk.

"Who knows, I don't. Neither does Itachi." Shisui hated the violence, hated the clan wars. Both he and Itachi hated killing, no matter how good they were at it...and they were the best.

"It's so strange, both of you, even Obito. You are so sweet and kind to me, you laugh all the time and it's just, so strange to me to know, what you do, all of you, even Madara." She said as they circled back tot he parking lot.

"Madara is the most ruthless of all of us, remember that Sakura," Shisui told her, but it sounded more like a warning in her ears.

Shisui opened the door to her car for her, "This was from Madara, the car, not the family. Didn't you notice the look on Fugaku's face? He didn't know."

Sakura watched Shisui walk around to his door, "What?" She asked him confused.

"Sasuke told me it was from his parents." She frowned at Shisui.

"Madara probably told him to lie. This car is from Madara Sakura, I'm not the only Uchiha who adores you." He grinned at her.

"But he is like, he is so old! Oh, this is going to make everything awkward." She groaned as she started the car and drove back tot he Uchiha compound.

"I would have bought you a car too if I thought it would make you want me...but I know things like that don't matter to you, it is what makes you so appealing." Shisui slipped his large hand over her thigh and squeezed making her squeak. He laughed.

Sasuke was outside of the main house waiting for them when they got back. Shisui met Sakura by the door of her car as she got out and pulled her into a swift hug then kissed her innocently on the mouth before turning and winking at Sasuke who was glaring at him.

"She isn't yours any more kid." Shisui tapped him lightly on the head as he passed by.

Sasuke resisted the urge to punch the older man. He knew he would be on the ground and hurting before he could blink.

"How do you like the new car?" Sasuke asked Sakura as she walked up to him.

"It's fast and too expensive, and not from your parents. Sasuke, why did you lie to me...again?" She cocked her head to the side considering him.

"I knew you wouldn't take it otherwise and you need a car." He didn't even try to deny that he had lied, there wasn't any point, she knew already.

"Why would your uncle buy me something so expensive?" She asked him

He shrugged," You're part of the family, he wanted you to have a car and you needed one."

Itachi appeared at the door to the house, "Mom made Dango." He said and took one look at her car in the drive before he shook his head and went back inside.

"Yum." Sakura followed him inside and after a moment Sasuke followed.

"Here is all the paperwork for your new car Sakura." Obito handed her a folder.

"Keep the registration and proof of Insurance in the glove box dear," Mikoto told her.

"Don't drive too fast and please don't get into any accidents." Fugaku smiled at her fake clenching his heart.

Sakura smiled at them, they were all such wonderful people, sometimes it was hard to see what the rest of the world saw in them. Criminals, opportunists, killers, corrupt Police.

"I promise." she smiled at them.

"Sakura dear, may I speak with you please?" Madara gestured her out of the room.

Itachi looked up to see them walk out of the room together, Madara taking her hand and tucking it into her arm. He looked to his father, who was also watching.

Madara led her to the second living room and sat down on the couch beside her. "Sasuke tells me you are dating Sasori. I know Shisui probably told you already but, Sakura, he is a bad person."

"I already told Shisui I know what kind of a person he is, he is no different than the Uchiha, who are also assassins, who are also murderers, criminals." She pushed the hair back from her face as she talked.

"I know a lot more about the family than anyone thought, more than what you tried and failed to shield me from Madara." She looked him in the eye, she refused to back down.

Madara took in her defiant tilt of the head, her set jaw, her clenched fists in her lap and burst out laughing.

"It seems we failed to shield you, my dear, if, in fact, you know so much. So tell me then, do you know that Sasori not only killed my little brother Izuna, he gutted him, hung his entrails on the wall like Christmas lights, cut his limps off and arranged them pointedly around the room...wrote my name in blood, in Izuna's blood on the wall mocking me with his death?" He leaned in close to her face so his breath was hot over her ear

"Did you know that...love?"

"No." Her voice came out small.

Madara sat back on the couch away from her satisfied he had proved his point.

"He is not the man you think he is." He said quietly watching her reaction.

"Neither are you." She got up and left him there chuckling to himself.

"No, I'm not." He watched her walk away with a predatory gleam in his eye.

Sakura leaned her back and head up against the wall and took a deep breath. She would be lying if she said what Madara had told her hadn't bothered her. Sasori was kind to her, treated her like a lady, was interested in her, what she liked, disliked her art, her interests. She really liked him, a lot.

Thier world, she had never been too bothered by it. She knew about it, knew more than they had wanted her to but it had never touched her personally. They protected her, kept her safe and hadn't let that part of thier lives interfere with hers. Perhaps she was being a little ungrateful, perhaps she did owe them more than she thought.

The problem was, she wasn't willing to give Sasori up for them and she knew, it would eventually cause problems. Sasori had told her he would try to keep the animosity of the Akasuna and the Uchiha from interfering in thier relationship but it wasn't that easy. It was already interfering and she hadn't even met his father yet. Sakura blushed, maybe she was getting to far ahead of herself. They had just been on one date after all.

His wrist flicked effortlessly as the brush laid down his lines. Brilliant cobalt blue met stunning viridian to make a dense sea green with turquoise underlayers.

Arcangelo Corelli played in the background.

Sasori's phone dinged.

Text message: From Sakura: I won't be back till late Sunday. Thank you again for the flowers. See you in art class Monday, have a good weekend.

Reply message: From Sasori: You're welcome. Be safe. Tell the Uchiha I say hello. I miss you.

Sasori smiled and put his phone back in his pocket. She had felt the need to let him know where she was. She was loyal. He had chosen wisely.

Sakura heard her phone ding and looked down, she laughed as she read his message. "Yeah tell them you say hello," she laughed to herself.

"Everything alright Sakura?" Itachi was walking down the hall toward her and stopped inclining his head to her like he always did.

"I'm fine, just fine." She sighed.

Itachi leaned up against the wall on his shoulder waiting. He knew she would continue if he was patient.

"Sasori, he...he is different with me. Like you are, like all the Uchiha. He is kind to me Itachi. To me, he isn't that murderer, no more than you are, or Shisui." She touched her lips after saying his cousin's name and Itachi's eye twitched.

"The face we show the world is often much different than the one we show our family, or people we care about. I'm sure that Sasori is the same way." Itachi said slowly as he thought.

Sakura waited.

"Are you happy, does he make you smile?" Itachi asked her.

She smiled, "He does, he is..wonderful. He makes me feel special." She smiled at the taller man.

Itachi inclined his head to her, "Then that's all that matters."

She looked up at him then in surprise and he pushed off from the wall.

"I won't deny that he is a murderer, but as you said, so am I, so is Shisui. It doesn't mean we can't love someone, we do, we love each other, special people in our lives. Just remember, with people like us, when we do love, we hold them that much closer to our hearts. We don't let go easily. Sometimes it turns to obsession, like a curse." He left her then, humming as he walked to his room on the other side of the hall.

"A curse." She pushed off from the wall tucking her phone in her back pocket and made her way back to the kitchen.

Madara hadn't returned to the kitchen she noticed as she sat down next to Sasuke smiling at Mikoto as she set a small plate of Dango down in front of her.

"You okay?" Sasuke asked her when she didn't pick up a stick of her favorite treat right away.

"Fine." She replied and picked up her Dango and took a ball from the end closing her eyes in bliss.

"Dango fixes everything." She took another bite and almost moaned.

Sasuke shifted in his seat and Shisui grinned across from them.

Obito's phone dinged and he stood motioning to Shisui, "Grab Itachi and meet me out front, it's time." Obito bowed politely to Fugaku and Mikoto and left the room heading to the front door.

"Duty calls." He bowed to Fugaku and Mikoto, smiled at Sakura and winked then left to get Itachi from his room.

Madara entered the kitchen shortly after. "We will e back later tonight, keep your phone on you and have a unit standing by Fugaku." Madara nodded to Mikoto and left as well.

"A unit standing by?" Sasuke asked his father.

"It's none of your concern, you're not old enough yet," Fugaku spoke harshly to his son.

"Itachi was helping the family when he was 16!" Sasuke protested.

"Itachi is Itachi, you are you, you're not ready yet. Your brother is a prodigy, you aren't." Fugaku rose from the table and headed for the front door his phone already pulled from his pocket.

Sakura's phone dinged. She pulled it from her back pocket and smiled at the picture. Sasuke leaned over to look.

"What's that?" He asked her.

It was a painting, it was her and Sasori's silhouette looking over the city of Konoha from the tower that they had thier first date on top of.

"A painting." She smiled down at the picture.

Ding

Text message: From Sasori: I won't keep bothering you. I wanted you to see it. You're my muse.

Reply message: From Sakura: It's beautiful.

Text message: From Sasori: I'll hang it in your bedroom after it dries.

Reply message: From Sakura: How will you get in.

Text message: From Sasori: ;)

Sakura laughed out loud drawing the attention of Mikoto and a scowl from Sasuke.

"Oh yeah, breaking and entering are hilarious." He frowned at her phone as if it had disappointed him.

"Speaking of which, give me my key back." She held her hand out to him and he grumbled as he pulled his keys from his pocket taking her key off and handing it to her.

"I texted Naruto, he will be over soon, want to go pick out a movie with me int he living room?" Sasuke rose from the table and headed out of the room.

"Take the Dango with you, dear." Mikoto smiled at her.

"Thanks!" Sakura followed Sasuke out of the room.

Naruto came, they hugged, laughed and settled down to an afternoon of movie watching and popcorn.

Later after dinner, they decided to go out to the bar. Naruto's choice. Obito went with them at the request of Madara who was not thrilled with the idea of them going, to begin with.

Obito sighed into his whiskey bored out of his mind as he watched Sakura beat the shit out of the boys in a game of pool. Sasuke was such a fool he thought, to cheat on her with that whore, that ugly whore. The boy really needed to grow up. Madara didn't trust the kid not to shoot himself in the foot much less to shoot who he needed to shoot without breaking down. He was too weak, he didn't have the heart for thier line of work, the family's.

Sakura jumped up and down and crowed her victory again...her boys frowning and arguing who's fault it was that they had lost to her again. Obito smiled into his glass as he ordered them another round and had it sent to them.

Sasuke grabbed the beer and downed it in his annoyance. Naruto nodded his thanks to Obito before downing his and Sakura came to sit by him leaving her boys at the pool table to play by themselves this time.

"Thanks, Obito, this will be my last one if that's okay." She took a drink of her beer and set it on the bar in front of her.

"Always the responsible one flower." Obito smiled at her.

"I was thinking whiskey after this actually." She laughed at him.

"You could put a man to shame Sakura." He grinned at her.

"What do you think I've been doing for the last two hours Obito?" She nodded tot he pool table where Naruto and Sasuke were arguing over who's ball was who's.

"Indeed." He raised his glass to hers and she downed her beer setting the glass back on the bar and pushing it away.

Obito signaled the bartender, "Whiskey, straight up no rocks." He tilted his head to Sakura.

She took her drink and slammed it. "Another?" She smiled.

Obito gestured to the wide eyed bartender. She took the drink and slammed it.

"Another?" The bartender grinned at her but she shook her head.

"I'm good." She fell back onto the stool in a slight slump.

"Good thing I'm driving," Obito mumbled.

Sakura reached over and ruffled his short spikey hair. "Oh Obito you're such a good man, thank you for driving us kids around." She slurred at him.

He laughed and took her hand from his head putting it in her lap. "Someone had to do it."

"Let's get them home before they get us kicked out. I like this bar, I want to be able to come back." He threw a fifty down on the counter with a wave to the bartender and took her by the hand, "Come on kids, we're going home." He called to Naruto and Sasuke.

They argued the whole ride home.


	7. Chapter 7

Sakura woke to fingers gliding through her hair, that gently ran down her cheek to her neck, over and over. She smiled and her eyes fluttered open.

"Shisui!" She sat up quickly, groaned then held her head.

"Take it easy there slugger, heard you drank a few shots of whiskey after three beers last night." He chuckled at her misery.

"Ugh, yeah." She held her head trying to will the pain away. Her mouth tasted gross and felt like cotton.

"Drink water while you down shots flower and the next morning won't be so bad." He pressed a glass of water to her lips and she took it gratefully.

"Imagine my surprise to find you in my bed this morning when I got home." He went back to running his fingers through her hair and down her back rubbing here and there, pressing the tightness from her spine.

"Mmm." She groaned appreciatively as his hands moved over her back.

Shisui grinned and continued to rub her, scooting closer to get to her lower back.

"I'm in your bed?" She cracked her eye open and looked around.

"Yes, all night, and I wasn't even here to enjoy you." His hands moved lower under the hem of her shirt, then back up her back rubbing more forcefully as he went up her spine.

She leaned forward enjoying the feel of his hands on her, a moan escaping her lips. She straightened quickly and blushed looking over at him.

He grinned at her but didn't stop. Running his hands up and down her back more gently, more suggestively he leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Next time you're in my bed, I'll make sure to be there too."

"Uh, I should go." She swung her legs over the side of his bed to rise but he stopped her by sliding his arm around her waist under her shirt and pulling her to him for a small kiss, then released her.

"Shisui, I told you I'm with Sasori." She got off his bed and went to the door.

"For now." He grinned at her laying back onto his bed stretching to his full length.

She rolled her eyes and left his room.

She ran into Itachi on the way to the kitchen.

"Good morning Sakura, did you sleep well?" He inclined his head to her.

"Yes, thank you Itachi, how was your mission?" She asked.

"The target is dead, his family has been silenced." A hard look fell over his face then he sighed and it was gone.

"I don't like killing." He said and left her to go to his room.

Sakura stood there for a moment. Itachi had never told her what he did when he left, no one did. Now that it was out in the open, now that no one was hiding it from her, it was...unnerving to her. This is what she had asked for though, isn't it?

Mikoto slipped two pieces of bacon, an egg, and some toast onto a plate and handed it to her as she sat down at the kitchen table beside Naruto who was already on his second plate, who never had a hangover in his life damn him.

"Mrig Ukra." He said through a mouthful of food.

"Ugh, don't talk with your mouth full, how many times do I have to tell you teme, it's disgusting." Sasuke scowled at his life long friend and turned to Sakura nodding good morning to her as he reached for more eggs.

"Morning guys." Sakura picked up her chopsticks and broke apart her egg.

"Delicious as always Mikoto." Sakura smiled her thanks to the woman for the wonderful breakfast.

"I hope you're eating okay over there. I gave Sasuke some money for groceries when he visited I hope he helped you with the food expense." Mikoto filled a glass with juice and handed it to her.

"Yes, thank you, he did. I appreciate it." Sakura bit into her toast scattering crumbs over her plate.

"Good morning." Madara came into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, sitting down across from Sakura at the table and helping himself to some eggs and bacon.

"Good morning." Several voices echoed.

"Obito tells me you had a bit too much to drink last night Sakura." Madara hummed as he spooned eggs onto a piece of toast.

Mikoto gave Sakura a censored sort of look as if to say, "Not very ladylike dear.".

"Uh, no actually, I didn't drink that much, for me." She said thoughtfully wondering how much Obito had told Madara she had drunk.

"I heard it was beer then shots of whiskey love." Madara grinned at her.

Mikoto gasped, "Sakura dear, a lady does not do shots of whiskey!" She had her hands on her hips and was looking at Sakura as if she had disappointed her greatly.

Sakura sunk into her chair feeling guilty. "Sorry."

Naruto started to snicker but was silenced with a stern look from Mikoto.

"Sakura, I'm glad I caught you before you left, did you still want that lab kit, the one from the old compound? You had expressed interest in it before but uh, that was before your parent's accident, I was going to get rid of it but you're more than welcome to have it if you want." Fugaku took a plate from his wife and sat down next to Madara.

"Yes!" Sakura shouted with glee but then put a hand to her head when her hangover saw fit to remind her of its presence.

"I would love it, thank you!" She smiled at him.

"Lab set?" Madara inquired.

"The lab set up from the old compound? Will that even fit in her new apartment?" Madara asked.

"It might need to go in your living room." Fugaku thought about it for a minute.

"It is rather large and takes up a lot of space, its two tables, burners, some shelves, the cabinet with the ingredients, probably outdated dear, and the other vials, equipment etc." He frowned.

"It might not fit now that I think about it." He told her.

"It will fit, in my living room, I can just move the couch to the side, I hardly ever use it anyway." She wasn't going to let her small apartment get in the way of her new lab.

"What do you want the lab for Sakura?" Sasuke asked her.

"For medicines and poisons and thier antidotes. I took a few classes on home remedies and wanted to get into it further, like a hobby." She smiled thinking of all the medicine she would make, all the poisons she would create and all the antidotes she would discover.

"You have the weirdest hobbies," Sasuke said into his coffee.

She shrugged.

"I'll have the boys bring it to you and help you set it up sometime this week okay, I'll text you a day and time." Fugaku set his chopsticks down on his empty plate and drank the rest of his coffee. I need to go. There was another murder last night."

"Do you think it is the same person as the other one?" Madara asked him before he could leave the kitchen.

"Seems like it but I don't know for sure." Fugaku left.

"Hn." Madara drank down the rest of his coffee and rose as well.

"I'll be at the office till late tonight, Sakura, drive safe, see you soon I hope. Let me know if you need anything." He smiled at her his hand dropping to her shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen.

"Anything." He bent down and kissed her cheek and left.

Mikoto frowned at his back as he rounded the corner in the hall.

"What the hell." Sasuke looked at his mom who just shook her head.

Sakura hadn't seemed to notice as she ate the rest of her bacon and turned to Naruto.

"Do you need a ride home Naruto, I have a car now." She offered.

"Yeah, that would be great. I was going to have teme drive me but I'd love for you to drive me." Naruto grinned around a mouthful of toast.

"Okay, I'll be leaving after breakfast so just let me know when you're ready." She rose and took her plate to the sink, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher filling her cup of coffee up again and sitting back down beside Sasuke.

"Why are you leaving so soon, I thought we could hang out more." Sasuke didn't want her to leave yet.

"I want to clear some space now that I know I'll have my own lab soon and I should read the next few chapters of my Psych book." She told him.

"Well okay but that doesn't mean you have to leave right after breakfast." He grumbled.

Itachi came into the kitchen and grabbed a cup to pour coffee into.

"I miss you Sakura," Sasuke admitted quietly.

Itachi turned from the counter to lean against it watching his little brother, pity in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, you know why I moved." She took a sip of her coffee.

"I don't actually is it because of Karin because " He didn't get to finish.

Mikoto and Sakura both said, "Don't say that name."

The women shared a look, Sakura rose and left the room with her mug of coffee, leaving Sasuke to poke at his eggs.

"Leave her alone for a bit Sasuke," Itachi said when Sasuke rose to follow her.

"Why? She needs to hear this, I'm sorry, I told her over and over I was sorry." Sasuke sat back down. "It was a stupid mistake, why won't she forgive me?"

"You broke her heart and she doesn't trust you anymore with it," Itachi said simply.

"Finish your food Sasuke." His mother told him.

"Karin wanted me to give you her number by the way, do you want it?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

Mikoto actually slapped the blonde on the back of the head.

"Ow," Naruto complained.

Itachi smiled into his cup of coffee and went to go look for Sakura.

"No I don't want it dobe, I want Sakura back." Sasuke ate his eggs and tried to avoid his mother's eye.

Itachi found her in the back yard sitting on the tree swing.

"Sakura." Itachi greeted her as he leaned back against the tree watching her swing slowly back and forth.

Sakura smiled at him. Itachi had always been so kind to her in a reserved, quiet kind of way. He was shy, he read a lot, liked to keep to himself. Women fawned over his good looks but he ignored them all. In fact, she had never seen him date or even express any interest in a woman since she could remember. She knew he wasn't gay though, he had walked in on her getting dressed by accident two years ago, had stood there staring at her breasts, then met her eyes, blushed and ran from the room.

"Will you give Sasuke a second chance?" he asked her, a simple question.

"No." She looked at him.

"I forgave him and we are still friends, that's enough." She added.

Itachi understood. Trust was hard, and once it was gone, it was almost impossible to get back.

"He still loves you," Itachi said.

"I know." She said.

"Shisui loves you," Itachi said.

"I know, he told me...and kissed me yesterday and this morning." She laughed.

"Obito put you in his bed, he didn't know." Itachi filled in a piece of the puzzle in her head.

"Ah." She hummed.

"How long have you known?"

"Since you started Jr. High." Itachi told her.

She sighed.

"I never asked for this." She said as if to herself.

"It is who you are," Itachi said.

"What do you mean?" She looked at him stopping the swing with her feet. That was who Sasori reminded her of...Itachi.

He looked into her green eyes, was that a flash of gold? Itachi sighed.

"You are a remarkable young woman Sakura who doesn't seem to know how many admirers she has." Itachi's lips quirked for a moment then fell back into thier usual calm.

Sakura stared at him.

"Admirers?" She laughed.

"Itachi, I think you need to get some sleep, you're talking nonsense." She smiled and kicked off the swing landing beside him against the tree.

"I suppose it is your humble nature, look around you Sakura, you will see." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled at her.

"Drive safe Sakura. I hope to see you again soon." Itachi inclined his head and walked back to the main house.

Sasuke watched his brother from his bedroom window. Sasuke watched his brother watch his Sakura, watched his brother tuck hair behind his Sakura's ear and watched his brother walk back to the main house.

"Damn it Itachi," Sasuke growled.

Sakura slowly made her way back to the house and packed her overnight bag. Sasuke walked into the spare room and watched her pull her bag together.

"Sakura, I'm sorry. Can't we move past this, please? I never should have...I just never should have. Please Sakura, I'll do anything ." He was pleading.

"Sasuke, I don't know how to say it in any way you will understand. You broke my heart and I just can't trust you anymore. I'm with Sasori now. I've moved on. You should too." She walked out of the room leaving him alone.

Sasuke stood there alone his teeth gnashing, his fists clenched at his sides. He had tried, he had tried so hard to remember that night. He couldn't remember when he had even talked to Karin, how they had met, where she had come from. Naruto had told him she was a distant cousin that he had just met that day at the mall. She was a third or fourth cousin he didn't even know he had and invited her to the party that night.

He remembered leaving Sakura by the firepit outside in Naruto's mom's backyard, he remembered going into the kitchen and getting a glass of water. Kushina had called him over to ask if he knew if anyone else would be coming she was getting all the keys and putting them in a bowl to lock in her room for the night. He had set his water down in the kitchen and picked it back up on the way to the bathroom. Karin had met him by the back door when he was heading back out tot he firepit and to Sakura. That was all he remembered.

Until the next morning when he woke up in Karin's bed.

Sasuke ran his hands through his hair. He hadn't wanted the girl, he loved Sakura. He hadn't even been that drunk, he didn't get it, it didn't make any sense to him. Karin had taken pictures and sent them to Sakura using his phone the conniving bitch. No, he didn't want her number, if he ever saw her again, it would be too soon.

Sakura and Naruto left an hour later. Naruto had come to say goodbye to him but Sakura hadn't. He sat at the end of his bed thinking. He wasn't going to lose her, he wasn't going to give her up to some psychotic murdering son of a bitch artist. No, Sasuke decided," I'm going to win her back."

Sakura waved to Naruto as she pulled away from his dad's house and drove home. She parked her car in front of the building to the left by Sasori's car. Not on purpose but because it was the only open space in the front. She pulled her bag from the back seat and walked up the stairs. Sasori was waiting by her door when she looked up.

"Sasori." She smiled at him.

"I saw you pull up, nice new car. You look good in it." He said hugging her.

"Madara, Sasuke's uncle, got it for me this weekend because I didn't have a car. He said it wasn't safe with me so far from home." She unlocked her door.

"You are home." He said and followed her inside.

"I know." She smiled at him and dropped her bag on the couch.

"Come." He led her to the bedroom.

She followed him remembering the painting. She looked at the wall behind her bed. "Oh Sasori, it looks even better than the picture you sent me."

Sasori put his arms around her, standing behind her with his head on her shoulder looking at the painting.

"I wanted you to remember our first date, always." He kissed the side of her neck and smoothed her hair back from her face.

"I'm not likely to forget it Sasori. I love it, it's wonderful. The date, the flowers, and the painting. You. You're wonderful." She turned in his arms and kissed him gently on the mouth.

"Welcome home Sakura." He kissed her again, his hands on her waist pulling her closer and backing her up to her bed in one motion.

They fell onto the bed with a laugh and more kisses.

"I have to go, I just wanted to show you the painting." Sasori kissed her again then pulled her up off the bed with him.

"Have a good night Sakura." He walked back to her front door, turned and smiled at her, then left.

Sakura twirled around and giggled into her hands after he had shut the door. He made her feel like she was the most important person in the world like she was worth something like she was beautiful. She smiled to herself as she took her clothes from her overnight bag and threw them in the laundry basket by the pantry.

Sakura's phone rang.

"Hello?"

Hey Forehead! Long time no talk, what the hell have you been up to girl we haven't talked in like fooooorever!" Ino's loud voice boomed through the phone at her.

"I just go back from Konoha, sorry I didn't see you but why don't you come over Tuesday after 4:30 pm? I get out of class at 4 but should be home by then." Sakura tried to placate Ino.

"Yeah I heard from Naruto you spent the night with Sasuke boy and that his uncle bought you this hot new car?" Ino was smirking she knew it.

"I told you the old man had a thing for you girl, ever since high school the guys been crushing on you big time, and here's the proof." Ino was practically singing.

"Don't be ridiculous, he only bought it for me to keep me safe, he didn't like me walking everywhere." Sakura tried to protest.

"Whatever forehead, just like Shisui never had a thing for you or Itachi. I swear, I don't know how you do it, I mean you have no chest! You're a nerd and never go anywhere! How do you get all of the hottest Uchiha after you!" Ino started complaining.

"You are wrong about Madara Ino and Itachi." Sakura laughed at her friend.

"Yeah? Well, what about Shisui? Huh?" Ino teased.

"He kissed me, yesterday, in the park and this morning, in his bed." Sakura pulled the phone away from her head for the loudness she knew was coming.

"NO FUCKING WAY! FOREHEAD!" Ino screamed.

"It's not what you think, he said he had feelings for me when we went for a walk and then I got drunk at the bar with Naruto, Sasuke, and Obito. Shisui wasn't even in the bed with me, he was out all night doing something for the family. I woke up to him sitting on the bed. It's not a big deal." Sakura tried to calm her friend down but it wasn't working.

"Shisui is so fucking hot! So are you two dating now? What did Sasuke say, did he go full on scowl and go crazy?" Ino was a natural gossip.

"No, we aren't together um...I met someone. From my art class. He's my new boyfriend." She told her friend.

Silence…

"Ino?"

"My girl is a woman! How the hell did you, wow, I have to meet him, like now. I'm coming over."

"No! He isn't here, he is in his own apartment, I'm having dinner with him tomorrow night after class. Ino...he's wonderful, he makes me feel really good about myself." Sakura smiled.

"I don't know what to say Forehead, is he hot?" Ino hummed.

"Yeah, he is." Sakura giggled.

"Ino, he painted me a picture of our first date and hung it on the wall behind my bed," Sakura told her.

"I'm so fucking jealous! First the Uchiha men and now this! My gosh Forehead you gotta teach me how to do it!" Ino laughed.

"Well come over Tuesday after 4:30 pm and I'll try." Sakura laughed with her friend.

"You got it, see ya." Ino hung up.


	8. Chapter 8

Sakura woke to fingers gliding through her hair, that gently ran down her cheek to her neck, over and over. She smiled and her eyes fluttered open.

"Shisui!" She sat up quickly, groaned then held her head.

"Take it easy there slugger, heard you drank a few shots of whiskey after three beers last night." He chuckled at her misery.

"Ugh, yeah." She held her head trying to will the pain away. Her mouth tasted gross and felt like cotton.

"Drink water while you down shots flower and the next morning won't be so bad." He pressed a glass of water to her lips and she took it gratefully.

"Imagine my surprise to find you in my bed this morning when I got home." He went back to running his fingers through her hair and down her back rubbing here and there, pressing the tightness from her spine.

"Mmm." She groaned appreciatively as his hands moved over her back.

Shisui grinned and continued to rub her, scooting closer to get to her lower back.

"I'm in your bed?" She cracked her eye open and looked around.

"Yes, all night, and I wasn't even here to enjoy you." His hands moved lower under the hem of her shirt, then back up her back rubbing more forcefully as he went up her spine.

She leaned forward enjoying the feel of his hands on her, a moan escaping her lips. She straightened quickly and blushed looking over at him.

He grinned at her but didn't stop. Running his hands up and down her back more gently, more suggestively he leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Next time you're in my bed, I'll make sure to be there too."

"Uh, I should go." She swung her legs over the side of his bed to rise but he stopped her by sliding his arm around her waist under her shirt and pulling her to him for a small kiss, then released her.

"Shisui, I told you I'm with Sasori." She got off his bed and went to the door.

"For now." He grinned at her laying back onto his bed stretching to his full length.

She rolled her eyes and left his room.

She ran into Itachi on the way to the kitchen.

"Good morning Sakura, did you sleep well?" He inclined his head to her.

"Yes, thank you Itachi, how was your mission?" She asked.

"The target is dead, his family has been silenced." A hard look fell over his face then he sighed and it was gone.

"I don't like killing." He said and left her to go to his room.

Sakura stood there for a moment. Itachi had never told her what he did when he left, no one did. Now that it was out in the open, now that no one was hiding it from her, it was...unnerving to her. This is what she had asked for though, isn't it?

Mikoto slipped two pieces of bacon, an egg, and some toast onto a plate and handed it to her as she sat down at the kitchen table beside Naruto who was already on his second plate, who never had a hangover in his life damn him.

"Mrig Ukra." He said through a mouthful of food.

"Ugh, don't talk with your mouth full, how many times do I have to tell you teme, it's disgusting." Sasuke scowled at his life long friend and turned to Sakura nodding good morning to her as he reached for more eggs.

"Morning guys." Sakura picked up her chopsticks and broke apart her egg.

"Delicious as always Mikoto." Sakura smiled her thanks to the woman for the wonderful breakfast.

"I hope you're eating okay over there. I gave Sasuke some money for groceries when he visited I hope he helped you with the food expense." Mikoto filled a glass with juice and handed it to her.

"Yes, thank you, he did. I appreciate it." Sakura bit into her toast scattering crumbs over her plate.

"Good morning." Madara came into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, sitting down across from Sakura at the table and helping himself to some eggs and bacon.

"Good morning." Several voices echoed.

"Obito tells me you had a bit too much to drink last night Sakura." Madara hummed as he spooned eggs onto a piece of toast.

Mikoto gave Sakura a censored sort of look as if to say, "Not very ladylike dear.".

"Uh, no actually, I didn't drink that much, for me." She said thoughtfully wondering how much Obito had told Madara she had drunk.

"I heard it was beer then shots of whiskey love." Madara grinned at her.

Mikoto gasped, "Sakura dear, a lady does not do shots of whiskey!" She had her hands on her hips and was looking at Sakura as if she had disappointed her greatly.

Sakura sunk into her chair feeling guilty. "Sorry."

Naruto started to snicker but was silenced with a stern look from Mikoto.

"Sakura, I'm glad I caught you before you left, did you still want that lab kit, the one from the old compound? You had expressed interest in it before but uh, that was before your parent's accident, I was going to get rid of it but you're more than welcome to have it if you want." Fugaku took a plate from his wife and sat down next to Madara.

"Yes!" Sakura shouted with glee but then put a hand to her head when her hangover saw fit to remind her of its presence.

"I would love it, thank you!" She smiled at him.

"Lab set?" Madara inquired.

"The lab set up from the old compound? Will that even fit in her new apartment?" Madara asked.

"It might need to go in your living room." Fugaku thought about it for a minute.

"It is rather large and takes up a lot of space, its two tables, burners, some shelves, the cabinet with the ingredients, probably outdated dear, and the other vials, equipment etc." He frowned.

"It might not fit now that I think about it." He told her.

"It will fit, in my living room, I can just move the couch to the side, I hardly ever use it anyway." She wasn't going to let her small apartment get in the way of her new lab.

"What do you want the lab for Sakura?" Sasuke asked her.

"For medicines and poisons and thier antidotes. I took a few classes on home remedies and wanted to get into it further, like a hobby." She smiled thinking of all the medicine she would make, all the poisons she would create and all the antidotes she would discover.

"You have the weirdest hobbies," Sasuke said into his coffee.

She shrugged.

"I'll have the boys bring it to you and help you set it up sometime this week okay, I'll text you a day and time." Fugaku set his chopsticks down on his empty plate and drank the rest of his coffee. I need to go. There was another murder last night."

"Do you think it is the same person as the other one?" Madara asked him before he could leave the kitchen.

"Seems like it but I don't know for sure." Fugaku left.

"Hn." Madara drank down the rest of his coffee and rose as well.

"I'll be at the office till late tonight, Sakura, drive safe, see you soon I hope. Let me know if you need anything." He smiled at her his hand dropping to her shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen.

"Anything." He bent down and kissed her cheek and left.

Mikoto frowned at his back as he rounded the corner in the hall.

"What the hell." Sasuke looked at his mom who just shook her head.

Sakura hadn't seemed to notice as she ate the rest of her bacon and turned to Naruto.

"Do you need a ride home Naruto, I have a car now." She offered.

"Yeah, that would be great. I was going to have teme drive me but I'd love for you to drive me." Naruto grinned around a mouthful of toast.

"Okay, I'll be leaving after breakfast so just let me know when you're ready." She rose and took her plate to the sink, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher filling her cup of coffee up again and sitting back down beside Sasuke.

"Why are you leaving so soon, I thought we could hang out more." Sasuke didn't want her to leave yet.

"I want to clear some space now that I know I'll have my own lab soon and I should read the next few chapters of my Psych book." She told him.

"Well okay but that doesn't mean you have to leave right after breakfast." He grumbled.

Itachi came into the kitchen and grabbed a cup to pour coffee into.

"I miss you Sakura," Sasuke admitted quietly.

Itachi turned from the counter to lean against it watching his little brother, pity in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, you know why I moved." She took a sip of her coffee.

"I don't actually is it because of Karin because " He didn't get to finish.

Mikoto and Sakura both said, "Don't say that name."

The women shared a look, Sakura rose and left the room with her mug of coffee, leaving Sasuke to poke at his eggs.

"Leave her alone for a bit Sasuke," Itachi said when Sasuke rose to follow her.

"Why? She needs to hear this, I'm sorry, I told her over and over I was sorry." Sasuke sat back down. "It was a stupid mistake, why won't she forgive me?"

"You broke her heart and she doesn't trust you anymore with it," Itachi said simply.

"Finish your food Sasuke." His mother told him.

"Karin wanted me to give you her number by the way, do you want it?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

Mikoto actually slapped the blonde on the back of the head.

"Ow," Naruto complained.

Itachi smiled into his cup of coffee and went to go look for Sakura.

"No I don't want it dobe, I want Sakura back." Sasuke ate his eggs and tried to avoid his mother's eye.

Itachi found her in the back yard sitting on the tree swing.

"Sakura." Itachi greeted her as he leaned back against the tree watching her swing slowly back and forth.

Sakura smiled at him. Itachi had always been so kind to her in a reserved, quiet kind of way. He was shy, he read a lot, liked to keep to himself. Women fawned over his good looks but he ignored them all. In fact, she had never seen him date or even express any interest in a woman since she could remember. She knew he wasn't gay though, he had walked in on her getting dressed by accident two years ago, had stood there staring at her breasts, then met her eyes, blushed and ran from the room.

"Will you give Sasuke a second chance?" he asked her, a simple question.

"No." She looked at him.

"I forgave him and we are still friends, that's enough." She added.

Itachi understood. Trust was hard, and once it was gone, it was almost impossible to get back.

"He still loves you," Itachi said.

"I know." She said.

"Shisui loves you," Itachi said.

"I know, he told me...and kissed me yesterday and this morning." She laughed.

"Obito put you in his bed, he didn't know." Itachi filled in a piece of the puzzle in her head.

"Ah." She hummed.

"How long have you known?"

"Since you started Jr. High." Itachi told her.

She sighed.

"I never asked for this." She said as if to herself.

"It is who you are," Itachi said.

"What do you mean?" She looked at him stopping the swing with her feet. That was who Sasori reminded her of...Itachi.

He looked into her green eyes, was that a flash of gold? Itachi sighed.

"You are a remarkable young woman Sakura who doesn't seem to know how many admirers she has." Itachi's lips quirked for a moment then fell back into thier usual calm.

Sakura stared at him.

"Admirers?" She laughed.

"Itachi, I think you need to get some sleep, you're talking nonsense." She smiled and kicked off the swing landing beside him against the tree.

"I suppose it is your humble nature, look around you Sakura, you will see." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled at her.

"Drive safe Sakura. I hope to see you again soon." Itachi inclined his head and walked back to the main house.

Sasuke watched his brother from his bedroom window. Sasuke watched his brother watch his Sakura, watched his brother tuck hair behind his Sakura's ear and watched his brother walk back to the main house.

"Damn it Itachi," Sasuke growled.

Sakura slowly made her way back to the house and packed her overnight bag. Sasuke walked into the spare room and watched her pull her bag together.

"Sakura, I'm sorry. Can't we move past this, please? I never should have...I just never should have. Please Sakura, I'll do anything ." He was pleading.

"Sasuke, I don't know how to say it in any way you will understand. You broke my heart and I just can't trust you anymore. I'm with Sasori now. I've moved on. You should too." She walked out of the room leaving him alone.

Sasuke stood there alone his teeth gnashing, his fists clenched at his sides. He had tried, he had tried so hard to remember that night. He couldn't remember when he had even talked to Karin, how they had met, where she had come from. Naruto had told him she was a distant cousin that he had just met that day at the mall. She was a third or fourth cousin he didn't even know he had and invited her to the party that night.

He remembered leaving Sakura by the firepit outside in Naruto's mom's backyard, he remembered going into the kitchen and getting a glass of water. Kushina had called him over to ask if he knew if anyone else would be coming she was getting all the keys and putting them in a bowl to lock in her room for the night. He had set his water down in the kitchen and picked it back up on the way to the bathroom. Karin had met him by the back door when he was heading back out tot he firepit and to Sakura. That was all he remembered.

Until the next morning when he woke up in Karin's bed.

Sasuke ran his hands through his hair. He hadn't wanted the girl, he loved Sakura. He hadn't even been that drunk, he didn't get it, it didn't make any sense to him. Karin had taken pictures and sent them to Sakura using his phone the conniving bitch. No, he didn't want her number, if he ever saw her again, it would be too soon.

Sakura and Naruto left an hour later. Naruto had come to say goodbye to him but Sakura hadn't. He sat at the end of his bed thinking. He wasn't going to lose her, he wasn't going to give her up to some psychotic murdering son of a bitch artist. No, Sasuke decided," I'm going to win her back."

Sakura waved to Naruto as she pulled away from his dad's house and drove home. She parked her car in front of the building to the left by Sasori's car. Not on purpose but because it was the only open space in the front. She pulled her bag from the back seat and walked up the stairs. Sasori was waiting by her door when she looked up.

"Sasori." She smiled at him.

"I saw you pull up, nice new car. You look good in it." He said hugging her.

"Madara, Sasuke's uncle, got it for me this weekend because I didn't have a car. He said it wasn't safe with me so far from home." She unlocked her door.

"You are home." He said and followed her inside.

"I know." She smiled at him and dropped her bag on the couch.

"Come." He led her to the bedroom.

She followed him remembering the painting. She looked at the wall behind her bed. "Oh Sasori, it looks even better than the picture you sent me."

Sasori put his arms around her, standing behind her with his head on her shoulder looking at the painting.

"I wanted you to remember our first date, always." He kissed the side of her neck and smoothed her hair back from her face.

"I'm not likely to forget it Sasori. I love it, it's wonderful. The date, the flowers, and the painting. You. You're wonderful." She turned in his arms and kissed him gently on the mouth.

"Welcome home Sakura." He kissed her again, his hands on her waist pulling her closer and backing her up to her bed in one motion.

They fell onto the bed with a laugh and more kisses.

"I have to go, I just wanted to show you the painting." Sasori kissed her again then pulled her up off the bed with him.

"Have a good night Sakura." He walked back to her front door, turned and smiled at her, then left.

Sakura twirled around and giggled into her hands after he had shut the door. He made her feel like she was the most important person in the world like she was worth something like she was beautiful. She smiled to herself as she took her clothes from her overnight bag and threw them in the laundry basket by the pantry.

Sakura's phone rang.

"Hello?"

Hey Forehead! Long time no talk, what the hell have you been up to girl we haven't talked in like fooooorever!" Ino's loud voice boomed through the phone at her.

"I just go back from Konoha, sorry I didn't see you but why don't you come over Tuesday after 4:30 pm? I get out of class at 4 but should be home by then." Sakura tried to placate Ino.

"Yeah I heard from Naruto you spent the night with Sasuke boy and that his uncle bought you this hot new car?" Ino was smirking she knew it.

"I told you the old man had a thing for you girl, ever since high school the guys been crushing on you big time, and here's the proof." Ino was practically singing.

"Don't be ridiculous, he only bought it for me to keep me safe, he didn't like me walking everywhere." Sakura tried to protest.

"Whatever forehead, just like Shisui never had a thing for you or Itachi. I swear, I don't know how you do it, I mean you have no chest! You're a nerd and never go anywhere! How do you get all of the hottest Uchiha after you!" Ino started complaining.

"You are wrong about Madara Ino and Itachi." Sakura laughed at her friend.

"Yeah? Well, what about Shisui? Huh?" Ino teased.

"He kissed me, yesterday, in the park and this morning, in his bed." Sakura pulled the phone away from her head for the loudness she knew was coming.

"NO FUCKING WAY! FOREHEAD!" Ino screamed.

"It's not what you think, he said he had feelings for me when we went for a walk and then I got drunk at the bar with Naruto, Sasuke, and Obito. Shisui wasn't even in the bed with me, he was out all night doing something for the family. I woke up to him sitting on the bed. It's not a big deal." Sakura tried to calm her friend down but it wasn't working.

"Shisui is so fucking hot! So are you two dating now? What did Sasuke say, did he go full on scowl and go crazy?" Ino was a natural gossip.

"No, we aren't together um...I met someone. From my art class. He's my new boyfriend." She told her friend.

Silence…

"Ino?"

"My girl is a woman! How the hell did you, wow, I have to meet him, like now. I'm coming over."

"No! He isn't here, he is in his own apartment, I'm having dinner with him tomorrow night after class. Ino...he's wonderful, he makes me feel really good about myself." Sakura smiled.

"I don't know what to say Forehead, is he hot?" Ino hummed.

"Yeah, he is." Sakura giggled.

"Ino, he painted me a picture of our first date and hung it on the wall behind my bed," Sakura told her.

"I'm so fucking jealous! First the Uchiha men and now this! My gosh Forehead you gotta teach me how to do it!" Ino laughed.

"Well come over Tuesday after 4:30 pm and I'll try." Sakura laughed with her friend.

"You got it, see ya." Ino hung up.


	9. Chapter 9

Sasori waited until he was sure Sakura was in bed and asleep for the night before going to the parking lot. He got down on his hands and knees, slid under her car and searched by feel until he found the GPS device screwed into the frame of her car near the trans. Uchiha were so damn predictable. He unscrewed the device with the leatherman he always had on him and pocketed it. Listening to make sure no one would see him he slid back out from under her car and up the stairs to his apartment.

He laid the device out on his kitchen table and inspected it. Not bad he thought, but not good enough. He took the small device, left his apartment and placed it on the ground near the edge of the building closest to the parking lot and buried it. No doubt there was also a listening device in the vehicle but he would need to be in the car to locate it, he would wait.

Sasori wasn't sure how much she knew about the Uchiha but he was sure she didn't think to check for cameras, voice recorders or GPS monitors in her new car. He didn't mind doing it for her though.

He wondered how her stay in Konoha had gone. She seemed genuinely happy to see him when she had gotten home. He was pleased she liked his painting. Sasori could tell something had happened and it wasn't the car. Speaking of the car, he thought darkly to himself, who did Madara think he was kidding, getting her that car. It wasn't practical, it was far too expensive for a gift from a family member and it was obvious.

The man wasn't known for subtle so it wasn't a surprise to him when he had seen her drive up in it, but it was a sure sign that Madara was trying to visibly stake his claim on the girl. Sasori smirked as he turned his bed down for the night. The man didn't know the girl, his girl very well. She was not impressed with expensive gifts or grand gestures. She respected reality, sincerity and the truth.

Some truths were harder to see than others, which is why he would help her. He would help her to see the truths in herself and in others. Like how he had helped her see the truth in Sasuke, by sending Karin to drug and seduce him. Karin hadn't wanted to do it but blackmail was such a useful tool. Her father owed a large sum of money to his father and when Sasori took over the books he made Karin's dad a very generous offer. His daughter's assistance for a clear bill. She had done a wonderful job. Honestly, it had been too easy.

Sakura was his now and he planned on keeping her.

Sakura almost forgot she had a car the next morning and was out the door and halfway to class on autopilot when she remembered. She shrugged and walked the rest of the way anyway. She really didn't need to drive she thought as she made her way to her first class.

Psych had been interesting, they talked about the different kinds of obsession and how emotion changed the chemicals in your brain. It fed into her interest in poisons and she made a mental note to read more about it later. If she could make a poison or a drug that blocked the mental receptors for pain without using the addictive painkillers on the market, she would be set for life and it would help the world as a whole. She practically skipped to her art class.

She was smiling when she skipped into the studio and over to where Sasori was already engrossed in a new canvas and a new painting.

"You're pleased." He commented without greeting her as usual.

"I am." She smiled at him.

"Why?" He cocked his head at her.

"I just got an idea for a new poison, my lab will be here this week and I can't wait to get started on it." As though she just realized what she had said she started to back peddle. Most people didn't go about thier day thinking of new poisons and even fewer were as excited about the prospect as she clearly was right now.

"I mean um, medicine, for health, er pain I mean, to help people!" She blushed.

Sasori cocked his head to the side again and looked at her. She shifted in her stance, she had already managed to scare him away she knew it. Damn it, she could just smack herself in the face right now.

A slow smile curved his lips and his eyes shone brightly. "I can't wait to see what you come up with."

"Really? It doesn't freak you out?" She was more than a little surprised.

"No." He said without looking at her, concentrating on his canvass.

"Oh, well, good. It's kinda a hobby of mine." She laughed happily and pulled the cover off her own painting setting her brushes up and pulling her pallet from her bag.

"Mine as well." He told her casually.

"You're kidding." She gapped at him open mouthed.

"Not at all, it seems we have more in common than I originally thought." He set his pallet down and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "My flower."

Sakura blushed and smiled turning back to her canvass. Sasori glanced over at her as she busied herself with her paints. She's perfect, he thought and smiled internally as he dipped his brush in his grey and ran it lightly over the mountain he was setting as his background. Perfect.

Sakura took her thinnest brush in hand and dipped it in plain red outlining the armor of one side of warriors on her battlefield, with a stroke of black and grey here and there depth was molded before her eyes, a scrap of white to shine as light reflecting blood mixed with her red. Crimson tears for the general as he looked out across his fallen. A pain in her heart, as she laid down stroke after stroke, tears well in her eyes and she set her brush down.

Sasori turned to her taking her in his arms, "You're enough."

The words slid from his mouth and into her hair. He always knew just what to say. She laughed into his shoulder.

"How do you do that?" She mumbled and backed away wiping the tears from her eyes and smiling at him.

"I know you." He said simply and picked his brush up again.

He did. He hadn't known her long, but he knew, he knew how it felt to lose maybe, to feel and not be able to express or to only express it in one way...he knew.

"Thank you." She said as she picked her own brush back up.

"Don't. It is not needed." He whispered without looking at her.

She nodded her head and continued to add detail to the warriors on both sides of the valley, her strokes confident and precise, like a knife or a blade. Her weapon, outlining thiers', breathing life into the canvass warriors, adding blood to thier veins only to paint it spilling forth. She painted death and destruction, love and perseverance, the light fading from a warriors eyes, the life flaring alive in another, vindication, retribution...life.

Class ended too soon. Sasori had nudged her gently with his shoulder to let her know she had been standing in front of her painting staring at it, brush forgotten in her hand. He took the brush and swooshed it through his thinner wiping the hairs clean and setting it back in her case as she composed herself.

"Are you okay?" He had never asked that before, he had never cared if anyone was okay or not before. The words left his mouth before he had even registered the thought in his brain to ask her.

"Yes." She turned to him and hugged him.

His arms went around her automatically, his head was spinning a bit. He cared about her. The fact hit a place in him he didn't know he still had access to. His heart.

Sasori liked her, was interested in her, desired her, but care for her...he hadn't planned on that. It bothered him.

She was intelligent, beautiful to look at, like a work of art, she kept good conversation when he wanted it, was adorable when he needed it, a good companion, girlfriend but love. The world slipped into his brain and he immediately let her go. She stumbled.

Sasori?" She looked at him confused. Had he pushed her away from him on purpose?

"I can't see you tonight. I have something to do. I'll call you." He picked his things up and left the studio before she could even respond.

What the hell just happened? She stood there in shock, did she do something? Tears welled up in her eyes again and she angrily pushed them away. She shoved her things in her bag and slung it forcefully over her shoulder.

Of course, just when she thought she had found the perfect guy, he leaves her confused, hurt and alone.

Sakura stomped down the stairs and out the front doors to the art building to stop dead in her tracks.

"You psycho son of a bitch!" Sasuke threw a punch that was dodged by Sasori who spun and bent, kicked up and caught the Uchiha in the side sending him backward with the force of the blow.

"Go home Uchiha." Sasori drawled as he went to walk around Sasuke.

Sasuke ran and went to tackle Sasori but was grabbed around the middle by Naruto who Sakura had just noticed.

"Hey teme, stop okay it isn't worth it." Naruto was trying to tackle Sasuke to the ground but instead was being dragged by the enraged Uchiha across the sidewalk.

"Sasuke stop!" Sakura put her bag down and tried to pull him up to his feet but was unable to because Naruto still had him by the waist.

"This is pointless."Sasori didn't even look at her as he walked to his car.

"Sasori?" She called after him but he kept walking ignoring her.

"Damn it Sasuke!" Sakura fumed, "What the hell are you even doing here?"

"I came to pick you up, take you to dinner." He sat back on his heels after Naruto let him go.

"Then I saw that prick walkout smirking at me and well, I got mad." He said staring off into nothing to avoid her eye.

"So you tried to hit him?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"Sorry." He mumbled as he rose to his feet looking at her now, guilt in his eyes.

"He provoked me." He mumbled.

"Oh? How?" She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at him.

"He's alive," Sasuke mumbled almost to low for her to hear but she did because she picked her bag up and huffed.

"Whatever, I'm going home." She started to walk away.

Sasori watched her in his rearview mirror. He saw her look over at him and thier eyes met. He had hurt her, he knew. He could see it in her eyes. He hadn't meant to, he needed to think. He needed to think and he couldn't think straight when he was with her. He started his car and drove away.

Sakura watched him drive away, her steps slowing and tears falling from her eyes.

"Sakura?" Sasuke was by her side taking her hand in his.

She yanked her hand back and continued her short walk home. Sasuke and Naruto were waiting for her by her door when she walked up the steps to her apartment.

"Go home Sasuke, sorry Naruto but I want to be alone tonight okay." She opened and closed her door in thier faces.

Sakura threw her bag down on her kitchen table and shoved her hands in her face sighing. She stumbled over to her couch and fell onto it with a huff. Soft footsteps could be heard above her. Sasori was home. Tears fell from her eyes onto her sofa and she fell asleep.

She woke an hour later to someone sitting on the other end of her couch.

"Sakura," Itachi spoke her name softly, giving her the opportunity to ignore him if she wished.

She didn't move, didn't open her eyes. She pretended to sleep.

Itachi sighed and rose from her couch moving silently to her kitchen where he filled her kettle with water and put it over a burner to heat. He moved quietly around her kitchen preparing a tea tray for them, setting the tray on her coffee table thirty minutes later. He sat down at the end of her couch again.

"I know you're awake, sit up, have some tea." Itachi poured two cup of tea and handed her one as she sat up.

"What happened?" He asked her simply.

"I don't know what I did wrong but Sasori blew me off today. Suddenly, in art class." She told him.

"We had plans for dinner tonight and he canceled out of nowhere. It seems silly but ...there is more to it, it wasn't that he is busy or something came up, I can tell. He doesn't want to see me." She said quietly.

Itachi spoke carefully, "In our line of work...sometimes, we hide. Or maybe something really did come up." He tried to soothe her.

"Hide?"

"It is hard for, people like us to get close to people." He clarified.

Itachi sighed, it was in his best interest to hold back from her but his goodwill told him to be honest with her.

"Maybe he cares about you more than he had anticipated and is now...backing out." Itachi chose his words carefully.

"Oh." Sakura wasn't a fool, she understood what he was saying.

"But." She started to protest.

"Give him time, maybe space." Itachi sighed, he really didn't want to have this conversation with her.

"Why are you here Itachi?" She asked him.

"Sasuke called our mother, told her what happened at your school between him and Akasuna and asked her to come to look in on you. She sent me." He took a sip of his tea and smiled at her slightly.

"Oh." She said taking her cup in her hand sipping.

"Would you have preferred Shisui?" A hint of a smile touched his lips as he looked at her to react.

"No, definitely not." She did smile then and he was satisfied.

"Hn." he smiled at her.

"You really are a very attractive man Itachi, why have I never seen you with a girl?" She blurted out and immediately regretted it.

"I'm sorry." Her face flushed pink.

So adorable, he thought before answering her slowly. "I have someone I care for but she is...not available right now. She was with someone for a few years, so I had waited, but then...when that relationship ended, I thought I should give her time...to get over him." He paused.

"I waited too long, she has already found someone else." He set his cup down and looked out her window.

"How sad, but does she return your feelings? Maybe it isn't too late Itachi, it sounds like you really care about her, to wait so long...it is so romantic, surely she would see that, the devotion. How could a girl resist you." She laughed patting him on the shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.

He took her hand from his shoulder and held it in his lap with both hands.

"She doesn't know. I don't know how she feels for me, surely we are friends but...I just want her to be happy." He smiled at her and squeezed her hand.

Sakura looked at Itachi, so calm, so serene, so handsome. How could any woman in her right mind not want him, not feel something for him? To hear he has loved someone for so long and never told her because she was with someone else, it made her sad.

"You should tell her. If she doesn't feel anything for you, you can move on to someone more worthy, but if she does, you never know it might make her change her mind. It doesn't sound like the man she is with like they have been together long. I would want to know if it were me." She told him truthfully.

"Would you." He said quietly, it wasn't a question, so she didn't give him an answer.

"Maybe." He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.

Realization knocked the breath out of her.

"Itachi?" She asked him.

"Yes." He said looking at her.

Sakura didn't know if it was a question, a response or an answer to her unspoken question.

She looked away, she couldn't meet his eyes right now. Her hand was trapped in his, thier knees touched on her couch, she could feel the spot burning her skin where he had kissed her.

Sasori paced back and forth in his apartment. The look she had given him, her eyes, sparkling with tears. Tears for him, hurt because of him, feelings for him. He felt...he felt.

"Shit." He sat on his couch.

He couldn't sit still, he got back up and walked back and forth in front of his window. He had heard her come home, had heard her tell the blonde and the Uchiha to go away, he knew she was alone. Should he go to her, try to explain, talk to her…

Sasori slumped into the chair by the window facing the parking lot. He saw a black truck pull up. He watched as Itachi Uchiha got out of his truck and headed for the stairs to Sakura's apartment. Sasori had never met the man but he knew him by reputation. He was a killer who despised killing. A genius, loyal and unwavering in his beliefs. A respected assassin. Sasori had seen his work first hand but had never come face to face with the man.

He walked silently to his door and opened it quietly, listening. He heard the soft click to her front door. So, Itachi hadn't bothered to knock but had picked her lock instead. Interesting. Sasori shut his front door and sat back down in his chair by the window thinking.

He needed to talk to her. He would wait for the Uchiha to leave then he would go down to see her. He needed to clear the air and explain himself, she deserved that much.

Itachi rose from her couch setting her hand gently in her lap.

"I should go Sakura. I'll tell mom you are better now. Get some sleep. I'll call you in the morning." He kissed her on the cheek and left, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Before she could think to react he was gone. She was more confused now than she had been before he had come to see her. Dman Ino, she is almost always right about men, she should have listened to her.

Sakura pulled her phone out to text her friend.

Text message: From Sakura: You were right about Itachi Pig. I think he just confessed his feelings for me, then left.

Sakura rose to her feet and stretched, her phone dinged.

"That was quick." She mumbled picking her phone back up.

Reply message: From Ino Pig: I sooo fucking hate you girl, it is soooo unfair! Tell me all about it tomorrow. I'm bringing tequila.

Text message: From Sakura: Deal, bring lots of tequila.

Reply message: From Ino Pig: Deal.

Sakura set her phone down and went to her bedroom to change into comfy clothes since she wasn't going out with Sasori tonight. She was in her closet when she heard her door close. She stood still barely breathing in her underwear. She hadn't been expecting anyone. She hadn't been expecting Itachi but he had called her name out to reassure her he was there before she could use her years of martial arts training on him.

She could hear someone in her living room moving slowly. She took a deep calming breath and opened the door to her closet slowly peeking out into her room. A shadow crossed her bed and she burst from her closet throwing a leg out and over a head that ducked to avoid the blow, turned, she ducked the strike her attacker had meant for her head and landed her pressure point to his neck in time to see a flash of red hair.

"Sasori?"

He fell to the right from her pressure point, stumbling as he fought for consciousness. Then he fell back onto her bed unconscious.

"Oh shit." Sakura covered her mouth with her hands.


	10. Chapter 10

"Sasori. Sasori. Sasori I'm so sorry." Sakura kissed him and pet him as he lay unconscious on her bed.

Sakura sighed in relief when she saw his eyes flutter and he groaned.

"Sasori?" She said softly as she lay next to him on her bed.

His eyes flew open, he rolled, grabbed her by the neck and slammed her back down on the bed, his body on top of her and knife to her throat.

Where did that knife come from she wondered as she looked up into his unfocused eyes?

"It's me, It's Sakura. Sasori, please." She whispered, scared that if she spoke too loudly he would just cut her throat.

"Sa Sakura?" Sasori's voice came out slow like he was struggling to remember something.

"Yes." She told him calmly, quietly, "It's Sakura, Sasori."

He slowly looked into her eyes, his pupils focusing on her face finally. He shook his head and slowly lowered the knife from her throat.

"Sakura, I'm, what happened?" He sat up and off of her folding the knife back and slipping it into his pocket.

"I thought you were a burglar so um, I knocked you out." She said sitting up.

"You did?" He rubbed his arm, he must have fallen on it.

"Pressure point. To the neck." She grimaced at him apologetically.

Sasori stared at her. She knew pressure points?

"So you…" He stopped talking, he had finally gotten a good look at her.

Sakura gasped, she too just realized she was in her bra and underwear. She ripped back the covers of her bed and climbed inside to cover herself.

She sat there staring at him red in the face. He smiled at her.

"I wanted to apologize." He said to her.

"I started to push you away because." He paused. "I realized I care about you."

She waited. Itachi had told her to give him time and space. If he was anything like Itachi, she didn't want to push him.

He scooted up on the bed to sit beside her.

"In art class, I could tell something bothered you, you were lost in your head and hurting."

"I asked you if you were okay." He added.

"Yes?" She prompted him to keep going.

"I have never cared if anyone was okay or not before, it had never occurred to me to ask someone that before." He said finally.

She smiled.

"So, you're saying that you care about me." She smiled.

"No." He said.

"No?" She frowned.

"You just said…" She was confused.

"I came home, I paced around my apartment, and thought about it." He told her laying his hand on her leg.

"I don't care about you." He said pointedly.

"Oh." She bit her lip trying hard to understand what he was saying.

"I think, I love you." He looked up at her through his hair that had fallen over his eyes.

"You think you love me." She repeated after him.

"Yes." He said watching her.

"I care about you, a lot. I miss you. When we are apart." He added.

"That's good though, I care about you too Sasori." She smiled at him relieved they were getting somewhere.

"Love is a weakness." He told her.

"It isn't something I have ever sought after, wanted." He admitted to her.

"You destroyed my way of thinking." He looked up at her through his hair.

Sakura held her breath, he looked so good right now, his hair falling over his eyes.

"I can't think of anything...but you." He confessed to her.

"I hate it." He scowled.

"I understand." She said gently.

"I won't push you, take your time. I'm here." She tried to do what Itachi had told her, give him space, give him time.

"You don't understand." He said quietly, almost angry.

"Are you, mad at me?" She didn't understand.

"No, yes, not you, just." He ran his hand through his hair and looked at her again.

"Now, I have something to lose." He touched her face with his fingers.

"I have a lot of enemies Sakura, the Uchiha included." He ran his fingers through her hair and let his hand drop to his side again.

"The Uchiha would never hurt me Sasori." She knew it for a fact.

"Maybe not but there are many others, who will." He looked at her again and almost cringed.

"I'm not a good person Sakura. I'm sure the Uchiha have told you what I've done, what I do. Who I am."

"They have told me things, yes. It is nothing they don't do and I consider them family...well most of them." She waved that technicality away in favor of focusing on him.

"I don't think you understand what you are agreeing to Sakura."

"What am I agreeing to Sasori." She asked him seriously.

"To be with me, to trust me."

"I willingly agree to that. The fact is, and I know you don't like it, I am protected by the Uchiha, so your enemies, are now thiers." She smiled at him.

"An invisible alliance of sorts." Sasori shook his head and smiled. "You are a clever woman."

Sakura smiled slyly at him." It is true, I am under thier protection, of the head family no less. I am already associated with your world Sasori, let me in."

"You are," Sasori said.

"Good." She took his hand and pulled him to her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him gently.

"Sakura?" He moved his lips over hers.

"Hum?" She hummed gently into thier kiss.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" He smiled into her lips, she started to giggle.

They fell onto her bed laughing with one another.

"Um, Hatake Dojo. Kakashi Sensei taught me at the request of my parents before they died when they found out I was friends with Sasuke Uchiha." She laughed again.

"Hatake, I know the man," Sasori said and kissed her again and again on the cheek then the mouth teasing her.

"So, are we okay Sasori?" She asked him in between kisses.

"Yes." He ran his hands down the side of her body and hummed his appreciation.

"I should get dressed." She kissed him quickly and made to get up but he held her in place. Running his tongue along her bare shoulder then down over the tops of her breasts.

"Are you sure?" He flicked his tongue over her skin making her moan.

"Sakura." Her name flowed from his mouth like the kisses hot over her skin.

"Hum?"

"Dinner?"

"Yes, let me get dressed." She went to get up again.

"We can order in." He held her tight to his chest covering her mouth with his again.

She didn't get a chance to answer. Sasori's mouth eclipsed hers in a forceful kiss, his hands slipped under the elastic of her bra and over her breasts kneading them gently. His body moved over hers, his clothes rubbing against her skin.

Her hands rose to his chest, down his chest to his pants pulling and tugging. His hands stopped her.

"Sakura, wait." His breath was short and he gulped in air.

"What's wrong?" She asked him resuming her fumbling at the zipper to his pants tugging it down. She could feel the press of his erection against her hand and she moaned into his neck.

"No Sakura please." He almost begged her.

"You don't want to?" She looked confused.

"I do but." He took a deep breath and moved off of her pulling up the blankets to cover her body.

"You're a virgin aren't you?" He asked her seriously.

She blushed," Yes."

"I want to wait." He said gently pushing her hair behind her ears with both hands and holding her face.

"Why? I want you, I care about you, I know you care about me." She tried to pull him back over her but he stopped her with his arm.

"I don't have a lot of light in my life, a lot of innocence. When I take you, I want to do it the right way." His gaze was intense.

Sakura nodded once." Okay."

"My father he, he didn't let me have a childhood, it was, different in Suna than it is here." He tried to explain, he felt foolish.

"I was six years old when I committed my first murder."He told her.

"I was seven when I tortured my first victim at my father's orders." He continued.

"It was normal for me. You are...you keep me sane." He held her gaze.

"I don't want to corrupt you. I want to do it the right way, you understand." He rose from the bed and offered her his hand.

Sakura nodded again and took his hand. "We can wait Sasori."

"What do you mean do it right though?" She cocked her head to the side.

"When we are married." He told her seriously.

"Married?" She choked.

"I told you. I think I love you." He said.

It wasn't until years later that Sakura would come back to this moment and realize what his words had really meant, and how rare it was in his world to do and say the things he did and said to her.

"Sasori." She stammered.

"You don't have to say anything." He led her to the closet.

"Get dressed. I'll order us some dinner." He left her bedroom to let her dress in privacy.

She pulled the shirt she had dropped on the floor earlier over her head. She could hear him in the other room ordering food. She was tying her pants up when his phone rang again.

"Yes?" He answered the phone.

"Not tonight." He said.

"That wasn't the plan and you know it."

"I will not yield tot hat pathetic excuse for a life."

"He dares…"

"Fine…"

"I'll be there in an hour, do not keep me waiting and I want to leave as quickly as possible." Sasori hung up his phone huffed and walked to the bedroom.

"Sakura, I have to go." He said without explanation.

"Work." He added then paused considering.

"You should go to the Uchiha's tonight, just in case. Don't tell them anything, no matter what they say. Tell them nothing about us." He told her to her surprise.

"I understand but the food." She protested.

"Wait for it, then leave immediately. I won't be here to protect you and I haven't secured your apartment yet." He kissed her and walked out the door.

"But." She stood there alone in her bedroom again.

Huffing the hair back out of her face she picked up her phone from her nightstand and called Sasuke.

"It's me." She said when he answered.

"Can you ask your parents if I can come spend the night tonight? Sorry, it is such short notice but."

"Ok thanks. I'm just waiting for my food to get here then I'll be on my way."

"No, I'm bringing it with me, yes you can have some."

"Okay, I'll text you before I leave."

She hung up. Ten minutes later there was a knock on her door.

"Order for Haruno?" The boy asked holding the food up.

"That's me." She smiled and took the food from him.

"OK see ya." The boy left before she could tip him.

Sakura closed her door, grabbed her school bag and overnight bag, the food, opened her door, locked it and made her way down the stairs to her car.

Forty minutes later she pulled up tot he Uchiha compound gates. They opened before she could hit the intercom. Sasuke must have been waiting for her.

She parked her car to the side and got her things out. The front door to the main house opened before she could knock.

Mikoto rushed out of the house with a worried look on her face, "Sakura dear, are you okay? Were you followed? Who knows you're here?"

"What?" Sakura asked the obviously worried woman.

"You're here because of what happened in Suna right?" Mikoto took her book bag from her and ushered her inside the house.

"What happened in Suna?" Sakura felt a pain in her stomach, and her mind flashed to Sasori's conversation before he left her and told her to spend the night with the Uchiha.

They made thier way into the kitchen where the family had already sat down to their dinner.

Fugaku rose to hug her, Madara hugged her after him, Obito waved to her, Itachi smiled slightly and inclined his head to her, Shisui grinned and Sasuke got up to meet her by her usual chair.

"Suna was bombed 2 hours ago. The Akasuna manse was raided, al the servants were killed. Sasori's father is dead. They are coming for Sasori next." Sasuke told her.

Sakura dropped into the chair that Sasuke had pulled out for her. "No."

"Sakura, we need to know how much danger you may be in," Fugaku spoke softly to her.

"How close are you and Sasori?" He added.

"He told me he loved me tonight...before he got a phone call and told me to come here before he left." She looked around the room.

"Am I in danger?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

"They haven't been dating that long." Shisui protested.

"And yet he told her he loved her," Mikoto said.

"If his behavior has changed enough, they will know" Madara growled.

"Then they will know about her, and her connections," Itachi said tot he room looking up from his plate.

"They will know she's here," Itachi said.

"She will be safe as long as she stays here," Itachi said and went back to his plate.

"I have class tomorrow," Sakura said.

"Sasori will come here looking for you, he will know we wouldn't let you leave," Itachi told her.

Everyone else in the room was quiet.

"He knew, he knew I was in danger that's why." Her eyes met Itachi's and he inclined his head.

"Oh." She looked down at her hands.

"What is it, what did he do Sakura?" Sasuke demanded.

"He tried to push me away to protect me, but when I, when he realized…" She laughed.

"What is it dear?" Mikoto put her hand on the girl's shoulder.

"I have the worst luck in men." Sakura laughed again and got up from her seat, grabbed her take out food and opened the bag pulling out containers.

"Sasori left before we could eat. I'm not that hungry, help yourselves." She set the food out on the table and closed her eyes.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and texted Sasori.

Text message: From Sakura: Be safe. I'm at the Uchiha compound. I'm not going to class tomorrow. Call me. I love you.

She set her phone next to her plate on the table. If he texted her back she wanted to know right away.

Sasori turned down the last road out of Fire country to Suna. His phone beeped, he pulled it from his pocket and smiled. He slipped his phone back in his pocket, he would text her later...after he took care of these worthless, soon to be dead pieces of shit amateurs who tried to take over his village, because make no mistake...it was his and thier time there was done he would make sure of it.


	11. Chapter 11

Sasori heard the explosion before he saw it. He slowed his car, pulling over to the side of the road and called Baki.

"That was the manse." Came Baki's voice over the phone.

"How many?" Sasori asked.

"None, it was a setup.

"So a three-man team at the most, do we know who?" Sasori wanted confirmation.

"Oto." Baki's voice came over the phone.

"I'll meet you at the gate." Sasori hung up his phone and pulled back onto the road.

He saw the destruction as he got closer, it was more contained to the village office and municipal buildings than the civilian sector. His family manse was on fire, but mostly intact. Baki was walking toward his vehicle as he threw it in park and got out.

"We have two men. I knew you would wish to interrogate them yourself." Baki led the way to the back of a tall windowless building by the gates.

Sasori saw both of the men stiffen in their seats at the sight of him. A small smile curved his lips. He would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy this part.

"Blind fold the one on the right and bring me my bag," Sasori told Baki who had already anticipated his needs, placed a bag next to Sasori on the table.

The men were tied down to separate chairs. Baki blindfolded the one on the right and pulled his chair away from his friends'.

Sasori pulled his bag open and pulled out a syringe and a small vial of neon green fluid. He inserted the syringe and drew the green until it was full, tapping out the bubbles and pressing on the plunger he knelt beside the man in front of him. Sasori was relaxed, careless even as he looked at the man.

"This doesn't have to be painful. I have other things I want to be doing right now. I just want to know, why did Orochimaru send you to blow up my village?" Sasori asked him calmly.

"I'm not going to fucking tell you shit you little bitch." The Oto man yelled in Sasori's face.

Sasori smiled, he loved it when they yelled, when they thrashed, thinking they still had some thread of control. He would strip him of such a vain assumption, crush his meager hope of a quick and painless death.

"Very well." Sasori stood up, grabbed the man by the hair and shoved the needle ruthlessly into his neck, pressing the plunger down hard inflicting as much pain as possible.

The man slumped in his seat. Baki came and untied his restraints familiar with Sasori's interrogation procedures. Lifting the man on the nearby table he arranged his arms and legs to lay straight and stepped back.

"It's a pity," Sasori spoke conversationally. "This could have been so much easier. We are past that now of course. The beauty of the drug I shot into you is that your mind remains clear. You will know and understand all that I do to you. You will feel everything, every little prick, every cut, every incision, but you won't be able to move. You won't even be able to scream."

Sasori leaned over the man's head and smiled a wicked smile. "Shall we begin?"

One small tear slipped from the man's eye as he stared blankly up at Sasori. "Excellent."

Sasori unrolled his scalpels onto the tray beside him. He cut the man's shirt away from his chest laying it bare to his gaze. "Baki, the coolers please."

Picking up the closest scalpel, Sasori cut a 12-inch vertical incision in the man's chest. With two quick flicks of his wrist two more incisions along the top of his chest and two along the bottom. Blood spilled from the openings onto the table, over the lip and splashed onto the floor.

Tears streamed from the man's face.

"Smoker I see. That is a nasty habit, it can kill you, did you know?" Sasori pulled his severed lung from the man's chest and threw it on the floor.

"Useless." Sasori murmured as he cut out the other lung and tossed it next to its partner.

"Not a drinker I see, very good, something salvageable." He cut the liver and kidneys from the cavity and placed them gently into the cooler Baki had provided for this purpose.

Sasori tisked as his fingers slipped around the man's still beating heart.

"You're doing very well, I must say, most would have died from the shock and blood loss by now, but not to worry you will suffocate soon, no lungs." Sasori smiled again.

Reaching up into the chest cavity, blood soaking into his shirt, he grasped the heart. Contrary to what most people think the heart is rather slippery and without the other organs and tissue holding it in place it tends to shrink up closer to the collar bone. Sasori made quick work of it though and pulled it still beating from the man's remaining chest.

Sasori closed his eyes and reveled in the last two beats pulsing against his fingers, the warmth of the life's blood dripping down his arm and falling from his elbow as he held the heart up for the man to see before he died.

"Beautiful." Sasori murmured opening his eyes. He placed the heart into the cooler and closed the lid.

Baki had a wet towel in his hand and wiped the blood from the cooler handing it off to a waiting Suna resident to put in one of the many waiting vans.

"Should I wait for that one?" Baki asks Sasori tilting his head to the other man, still blindfolded.

"No, he will serve as a messenger. I am going to send him back to Orochimaru, with a warning." Sasori wiped his hands on a towel, throwing it on top of the corpse on the table before making his way to the other man.

Sasori removed the blindfold, turned the man's chair so he could see his "friend" and pulled a yellow vial from his bag and another syringe.

"That wasn't an interrogation!" The man screamed.

Sasori ignored him, humming as he removed the air bubbles from the syringe.

The man began to cry and plead. Sasori stepped back, Baki immediately stepped forward smashing his fist into the man's face. He didn't make a sound when Sasori stabbed him in the neck and pushed down the plunger.

"This is a poison of my own design. This is the antidote." Sasori tucked the smaller violet vial into the man's shirt pocket. If you take it before the fourth day, you will die. If you take it after the fourth day, you will die. You have four days to get this message to Orochimaru. Do you understand?" Sasori paused and waited for the man to answer.

"Yes." The man said.

"Tell Orochimaru, I am coming for him. Tell him, I will burn Oto to the ground, there will be nothing left. I know what he stole from me. I know he doesn't know how to use it. If he tries, he will unleash death upon the world, not just Konoha. Tell him. It is a global killer in the hands of an amateur." Sasori looked down at the man.

"Do you understand?" He asked him again.

The man nodded.

"Release him into the dessert, give him two days of water and one day of food, strip him before he leaves, but he keeps the antidote, is that clear?" Sasori told Baki.

"Yes, Sir." Baki bowed.

"Good, I need to see to the rest of the dead before they are no longer harvestable." Sasori left the building and headed to the manse.

Sakura sat on the couch in between Sasuke and Itachi watching the news. There had been several bombings in Suna, the village was engulfed in flames.

"It seems most of the damage is isolated to the government buildings here in Suna." The newscaster reported.

"No telling who is responsible as the village's private police are not commenting. No one has been allowed in since the incident and it doesn't look like that will change anytime soon, we are standing by." The camera zoomed out to show several vans leaving the heavily guarded gates of Suna, all black, all unmarked.

"This just in," The news caster's face took up most of the screen again," All fires are now under the control of the Suna fire department and the death count is assumed around 100 to 150 people so far." The newscaster pressed their earpiece into their ear.

"I've just been told that Akasuna no Dokuhebi, the clan head of the Akasuna family has perished in the bombing of the manse. Akasuna no Sasori is on sight but refuses to comment."

Sakura gasped audibly. Itachi put his hand on her shoulder rubbing it gently.

"Do we know who is responsible for the bombing Uncle?" Itachi turns to Madara who is on the other couch watching the news with them.

"Oto, Orochimaru." Madara doesn't look at his nephew his eyes focused on the TV screen.

"It appears he was focused on the government buildings and the manse." Obito comments.

"And one of the hospitals." Sakura surprises everyone when she speaks up.

"She's right," Shisui says, as he pauses the TV.

"See there in the background, they are pulling sealed boxes out of the basement there." He stands and points out the boxes and the men he is referring to.

Madara throws his head back and snorts with unhinged laughter.

"Akasuna, you sly dog!" Madara grins maniacally at the TV.

"Body parts," Madara says after he stops laughing.

"Sasori is harvesting body parts. For the black market." Madara looks at Sakura who pales.

"No." She whispers.

"We might be arms dealers but he deals in human body parts love, that's who your boyfriend is," Madara tells her cruelly.

"Enough." Fugaku interrupts anything Sakura could have responded with.

"Sasuke, Itachi, take Sakura to the other room," Fugaku ordered giving Madara an unprecedented glare and challenge.

Madara shrugs, he doesn't care.

Sakura sits on the end of the couch that Itachi leads her to, her shoulders hunched in on themselves, her hands are shaking.

"Drugs, sure, weapons, bribing politicians, okay, I was prepared for that kind of stuff but...human...body...parts…. I don't, I can't." She slumps over, her head in her hands.

Itachi sits down beside her and takes her into his arms. She rests her head against his chest listening to the beat of his heart as she tries to steady her breathing.

Sasuke is on her other side petting her hair and massaging her shoulder.

Shisui walks in with a tea tray 30 minutes later to find them much in the same position. He set the tray down, pours the tea and holds the cup to Sakura's lips.

Her hand comes up to the cup steadying it and she takes a sip. She nodded her thanks to Shisui and he sits back on his heels in front of her.

She looks around, her boys, all of them surrounding her, comforting her. She flashes them a weak smile. "I'm okay."

Shisui gets up and sits in the chair across from her. Sasuke doesn't move away but leans back against the couch.

Itachi doesn't move, if anything his hold on her tightens and she sighs into his chest, tea in hand. A small shiver runs through her body and she laughs.

"What is it Sakura?" Itachi asked her quietly, softly.

"He told me he loved me today." She broke down and cried.

Itachi took the cup of tea from her hands and handed it off to Shisui who already had his hand out to take it. Sasuke left the room and came back with some tissue for her to wipe her eyes and blow her nose with.

Itachi pet her hair and let her sob into his chest as he rocked her back and forth.

"This is what we have been trying to shield you from," Itachi whispered to her.

"There is dark Sakura and then there is our world. Some parts of our world are darker than others." Itachi continued to whisper to her.

"Drugs, weapons, information, bribes, they are all dangerous and illegal, but there are different levels of illegal Sakura." His hands had moved to her back rubbing gently along her spine to release the tension he felt there.

"Stop Itachi. Don't coddle me. I am not a child." She looked up at him pushing the hair back from her face.

Her eyes were puffy from crying and red, her cheeks were stained from her tears and pink, but her eyes burned green with...determination.

Itachi could see it in her eyes and it worried him.

"If it was Orochimaru who bombed Suna, he intentionally started a war Sakura," Itachi told her.

"Sasori, by his reputation alone, I know he will not sit back and let it unfold, he will take his retribution, he will take Oto." Itachi continued.

"You will be in danger." Shisui picked up the conversation.

"He will come for her, but he doesn't have the manpower that we do. The Uchiha are plentiful and in multiple positions of power in Konoha, it is best if she stays here with us." Shisui said to Itachi.

"He knows we will protect her," Sasuke said what everyone already knew.

"I'm not going to sit here and wait for him to come get me after he is done, what if he doesn't make it, what if he dies?" Sakura looked from one Uchiha to another.

Itachi sighed, "As loathe as I am to admit it, Sasori won't die. He'll probably go into Oto single handed and decimate the place. He will be back before you know it."

"He's, that good?" Sakura didn't want to ask but she also had to know at the same time.

No, Sasori wasn't the man she thought he was but she realized she hadn't asked him either, if she had...he might have told her. He had tried to tell her, no specifics, but she was reasonable...he had tried to tell her.

Sakura pulled out her phone.

Text message: From Sakura: I saw the news, the Uchiha told me what you are doing. Are you going to Oto for your revenge?

She put her phone in her pocket and picked up her tea, resting back against Itachi again for support.

Her phone beeped.

Text message: From Sasori: Yes, don't worry. I know what I'm doing. Stay with the Uchiha I will come get you soon, Two days maybe three. I love you.

Text message: From Sakura: I love you too.

"Can I stay here for the next few days?" Sakura started to cry again.

"Of course." Itachi said pulling her to him again, hugging her and petting her while she cried into his chest, again.


	12. Chapter 12

"Kabuto, did you get what I asked for?" Orochimaru's eyes glowed yellow with anticipation as he watched the young white haired man approach with a single metal box.

"Yes Lord Orochimaru, I did." Kabuto set the box down on the table of the lab.

"Excellent." Orochimaru opened the box.

Kabuto and the pale skinned lord looked down into the metal case. Floating in oil, was a small circular, glowing device with an amber vial of the most peculiar glowing liquid in it.

"He truly is a master." Orochimaru said quietly.

"What is it Lord Orochimaru?" Kabuto had leaned forward to peer into the box with his master.

"A virus Kabuto, a very deadly virus...a global killer." Orochimaru licked his lips.

"What are you going to do with it? Weaponize it?" Kabuto asked , never taking his eyes from the object in the box.

"No need, it is already weaponized, such is the ruthless efficiency of our dear Sasori. I just need to figure out how to use it." Orochimaru hummed in anticipation.

"You mean you don't know how?" Kabuto was interested.

"Not yet, but I will, in time." Orochimaru closed the lid and locked the latch again.

"For now, there are things we need to do. He will be coming, he will want this back no doubt, and he will want revenge." Orochimaru smiled wickedly.

"For the death of his father?" Kabuto asked.

An evil laugh echoed throughout the lab, "Avenge his father, no Kabuto. Sasori and his father were not...close. In fact I am sure he is happy the old man is gone. No, he will want his revenge for the damage I caused to his village. Home is important to that one, more than blood."

"And his girlfriend?" Kabuto asked.

"Make no move to take her yet. She is too well protected." Orochimaru led the way out of the lab down the hall.

"By the Uchiha." Kabuto said wisely.

"Yes but as far as my spies can tell, the Uchiha have made no alliance with Akasuna, they only wish to protect the girl, they see her as one of their own." Orochimaru laughed.

"It would be clever of Sasori, if I thought it had been his plan the whole time but he hates the Uchiha almost as much as I do." Orochimaru chuckled.

"Lord Orochimaru, if the Uchiha joined in an alliance with Akasuna." Kabuto started to say.

"They won't." Orochimaru interrupted the young man.

They had entered the main room of Lord Orochimaru's compound. "Check the security and reinforce the guards around the entrance and close off all exits immediately. He will be coming, and soon."

"He is only one man." Kabuto said.

"Indeed, which must tell you how very dangerous he is, do not underestimate him. He was killing people by the village before he hit puberty, he is a prodigy, an elite. Now go." Orochimaru waved Kabuto away.

Sasori placed the last set of eyes into the last cooler and shut the lid. Someone handed him a damp cloth and he cleaned the blood from his hands as he made his way to the main part of the manse.

"Report." He told Baki who strode up beside him.

"The manse is no longer under fire, the damage is in the kitchens and back greenhouses only, the rest is operational, including your underground lab sir." Baki told him.

"Good. Have team 5 and team 8 ready and at the gate in one hour. We are heading to Oto." Sasori walked through the front doors of the manse to be greeted by his butler.

"A bath, fresh clothes, my gear, pack for Oto and I mean pack heavy." Sasori walked to his rooms, stripping as he went.

The butler drew his bath as he splashed bucket after bucket of warm water over himself washing the last of the blood from his arms and legs. He scrubbed his hair and washed his face.

As he lowered himself into his bath his thoughts drifted to Sakura. She would be safe with the Uchiha. He had to think this through, he had never wanted to live more than he did right now. It was like he had told her, he had something to lose. He smiled to himself before he ducked under the hot water completely...he also had something to come back to now. He couldn't loose, no matter what.

He would come back to her, even if it meant doing what he never thought he would do. Sasori reached for his phone.

There hadn't been any more messages from Sasori. Sakura had gone to bed early and lay in bed not moving, not sleeping, her phone in her hand.

Itachi cracked the door and peeked in to check on her. He could tell she was awake but she didn't move so he closed the door and left.

He made his way back to the second living room where Shisui and Sasuke were still sitting watching the news. Madara and Obito had left early to take care of some family business that didn't require anyone else.

Fugaku and Mikoto had retired to their rooms for the night asking Itachi to keep an eye on Sakura and let them know if anything else happened.

Sasuke and Shisui were arguing when Itachi entered the room.

"She doesn't know what she wants, this is ridiculous, she hardly even knows him!" Sasuke was keeping his voice down but was clearly pissed.

"You're an idiot, and don't think I like this anymore than you do but did you see her? She is a wreck, she is clearly in love with him, there is nothing we can do but be here for her." Shisui was leaning back, head resting on the back lip of the couch.

"It is an infatuation, she couldn't possibly love him." Sasuke insisted stubbornly.

"It is you who does not know her Sasuke." Itachi sat down beside Shisui on the couch and Shisui looked over at him sitting up.

"What the hell does that mean?" Sasuke glared at his brother.

"She cried, those weren't tears of fear or worry, they were tears of love. The sooner you can accept that the sooner you can help her." Itachi sighed.

He didn't like it either, he had told her he loved her and he had meant it.

"Love isn't always black and white Sasuke." Itachi told his younger brother.

"Doesn't it infuriate you? Aren't you mad Itachi? I know you love her just as much as we do." Sasuke didn't understand.

"It is because I love her, really love her, that I am going to try to help her, to be whatever she needs right now. She doesn't need a foolish, selfish, childish or jealous friend right now. She needs assurance that we will help if it is needed." Itachi said sternly to Sasuke.

Shisui sighed at his side, "So, it has come to that huh, fine." He ran his fingers through his hair.

"What the hell are you two talking about!" Sasuke did yell then, his frustration getting the better of him.

Shisui shook his head at the younger Uchiha in pity and Itachi just closed his eyes as if his head hurt and ignored him.

"We leave for Oto, this is not for my father, this is for our village, our home. Orochimaru has stolen something from us, from me. It looks like this and I want it back." Sasori handed out picture copies of the box they would be looking for.

"This is not a typical weapon and must be handled carefully. The box is bulletproof, fireproof and waterproof, however, you must still be careful not to damage it. Biological warfare, that is what lies inside that box, a global killer if released into the air. You will die, I will die, there will be no one left. Do you understand?" He looked at the two teams assembled.

"Yes Sir." They chorused.

"Good, we will work in these two small teams, it is infiltrate and collect, nothing else do you understand? This is a stealth and silent mission, he will be expecting us. I chose you, because you are the best. Don't let me down."

He turned to Baki."You understand what I told you?"

"I do Sir." Baki took the cell phone Sasori held out to him.

"Good. Follow through if you don't hear from me in two days." Sasori instructed him as he climbed into the truck that had pulled up alongside of them.

"Yes Sir." Baki said and watched them drive away, toward Oto. Baki looked down at the cell phone, a picture of a pink haired girl smiled back at him. A small smile curved the hard lips of the man who had known Sasori all his life.

"If your mother could see you now." The older man shook the smile from his face and turned back to Suna, "What are you standing around for! There is more to do before your night it over! Move! Move! Move!"

Itachi lay in his bed, eyes closed trying to sleep when he heard his door click open quietly.

"Itachi?" Sakura whispered softly from the side of his bed.

"Sakura, is everything okay?" He went to sit up but she stopped him with a small hand to his chest.

"Can I," She hesitated." Can I please lay with you for a few?"

Itachi paused, what should he say, she needed comfort, she had come to him, not Sasuke, not Shisui, she wanted someone who wouldn't take advantage of her. He sighed and pulled the covers back for her. She laid down next to him and he pulled the covers over them both.

Sakura curled into him, her arms around his neck hugging him, her face buried in the side of his neck. Itachi sighed again and wrapped his arms around her, smoothing her hair down from his nose.

"I'm sorry Itachi, I know this is wrong I just. I need you right now." Sakura whispered into the side of his neck.

"I understand Sakura." Itachi spoke softly over her head.

He did understand, but it still hurt.

"How did you, when did you...know you loved me?" She asked him.

"When you moved, when you left. When you were gone." He told her honestly.

"Like Sasori." She sniffed into his embrace.

"Like Sasori." he agreed but didn't completely agree.

"Sakura, are you sure what you feel for him is love?" He was hesitant to ask but he wanted to know, and he wanted her to be sure. If Sasori succeeded, and he thought he would, she would know, he was not the man she thought he was. He wondered if it would change her feelings for the man.

"I am worried about him, I miss him. I was devastated when he pushed me away." She told him.

"You have felt those things before, about Sasuke and now admit you were infatuated. Are you sure it is love that you feel for him?" Itachi was trying to be gentle, he didn't want to push her.

"I don't know." She said quietly.

Itachi sighed and hugged her close to him.

"I am sure." He said so quietly she might not have heard him, but she did.

"Itachi, I love you too, and Shisui and Sasuke, all of you." She kissed his neck.

"I don't know what I would do without any of you. It is confusing to me. It feels the same as what I feel for Sasori but, also." She trailed off.

"What I feel for you is not what I feel for my cousins or my other family members Sakura." Itachi told her.

"What if, can I, try something?" She looked up at him.

Itachi cocked his head to the side and looked down at her, "Try what?"

Sakura looked at him, watched his eyes search hers, pushed up from his chest with her hands and moved her mouth over his. Itachi tightened his hold on her and pressed her to his body. She moved against him, willing him, challenging him to react to her touch.

"Sakura, stop." Itachi broke their kiss and tried to move her back and off of him.

"I want to see if what I feel when Sasori touches me is normal or if...or if it is something else." Sakura told Itachi and pressed her mouth to his again.

Itachi groaned into her kiss. He had dreamed of this day for years, he had pictured her kissing him in his mind many times but never, never had it been like this.

"Sakura." He broke their kiss again, "This isn't fair to me, I don't deserve this."

Tears fell from her eyes.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Forgive me Itachi." She rested her head back down on his chest and sobbed.

"There is nothing to forgive, I understand." He took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Sleep. I'll wake if anything happens, rest." and he held her to him, a pain in his heart, throbbing with every exhale from her lips over his chest.

"I'm sorry Itachi." Sasuke whispered again her tears slowing as she fell asleep in his arms.

"Rest Sakura. I have already forgiven you for anything you have done or could ever do when I decided I loved you." Itachi whispered into her hair.

"Always so good to me Tachi." She hummed and was asleep.

"Always, no matter who you are with." Itachi kissed her head, the pain in his heart piercing his soul.

Shisui stood outside his cousins room. His hand fell away from the knob, he turned and walked slowly back to his own room, laid down and tried very hard not to clench his teeth like his fists at his sides.

Sasori watched the terrain as they passed, dessert as far as the eye could see but he knew soon in the next few hours desert would turn to forest and then to brush and fields, rice paddies and smaller villages, Oto. Konoha lay in between Suna and Oto. Sakura.

He thought of her at the Uchiha compound and clenched his teeth, it couldn't be helped. He had known what he was getting into when he chose her. He had thought he was the one in control of the situation, pulling the strings from the shadows, putting Karin in the right place at the right time to do his bidding. He had arranged for her apartment to be the one under his. Their art class had been full but he had called in a favor and they had let her in. Yes, he thought he had masterminded their entire relationship, but he hadn't been prepared for the full force that was Sakura.

She was sincere. Her beauty was genuine, nothing fake, nothing forced, she was who she seemed to be and at the same time so much more. She was clever and witty, she made him laugh, smile, and desire. Desire to be something he had never been, a good person. With her, he was whole, he was alive. Without her, he was a killer, a criminal, an assassin. Sasori wasn't in control, she was, and he found that he didn't really mind.

Sasori laughed to himself. He was tired of that life, had been for some time. It had been what he had wanted, he thought, to be alone, to be feared, but he realized, no, no more, he wanted out. She was worth it. He had planned on waiting until they reached Oto but that would be foolish. It had been his pride that had gotten in the way, but when it came to her, he had no pride. It was time, to prove his words to her. What had she told him once, actions speak louder than words. Well okay, here goes. He pulled the phone from his pocket and called Baki whom he had given his cell to.

"Call them. Make the offer." Sasori told the older man and hung up.


	13. Chapter 13

Sakura woke to the sound of her phone ringing.

"Sasori?!" She answered hopefully.

"This is Baki, I apologize for surprising you Miss Haruno. Akasuna asked me to call you. He is well. He wished for me to make the Uchiha a proposition and you are his only direct communication to the clan. Will you please give them a message?" Baki's voice came over the phone.

Itachi lay beside Sakura, he could hear the man on the phone and put his hand out to speak with him.

"You may speak to them directly." Sakura told Baki handing the phone to Itachi.

"This is Uchiha Itachi, with whom do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" Itachi asked the man politely.

"This is Baki, Sasori's first in command. Sasori Sama wished to inform you, as I am sure you know, it was Orochimaru who attacked Suna. What you may not know and what I have been given permission to inform you is that Orochimaru stole something from Suna of Sasori Sama's own design. A virus strain, a global killer, that must be recovered at all costs. We need your help. Sasori Sama is confident he can recover it on his own, however, he is not one to leave things to chance. In light of his new, affections for the lady, he proposes an alliance." Baki told Itachi slowly, careful of each word.

Baki heard the rustling of sheets over the phone, was the man in bed with Sakura? Baki's eyes narrowed as he gripped the phone.

"We have heard your proposal. As interesting as it is, you understand , we will need to negotiate the details. I am not the clan head I am sure you know, Uchiha Madara will wish to meet with Sasori in person. I assume Sasori is on his way to Oto and that is why you are calling in his stead?" Itachi asked.

"Yes. He has taken." Baki paused. They had not agreed to the alliance yet, he hadn't expected them to agree over the phone without meeting and giving conditions of their own. He wasn't sure how much he should tell them. Sasori was confident they would accept but he wasn't so sure.

"Sasori sama took two teams to Oto with him to retrieve his creation." Baki gave him the information.

"Two teams." Itachi smiled.

"He truly is as talented as they say, or as crazy." Itachi chuckled lightly.

Sakura twisted the covers in her hands watching Itachi talk to Baki wondering where Sasori was exactly and how he was doing, when she would see him again.

"That and more." Baki returned the chuckle.

"I will relay your proposition for an alliance to my Uncle. Await my call." Itachi spoke into the phone.

"Call me on this number." Baki hung up.

Itachi held the phone a moment after the disconnect and turned to Sakura whose eyes were wide with fright and concern.

"What is it, what did he say?" She asked breathlessly.

Itachi smiled. "Sasori wants an alliance with the Uchiha. I never thought this day would come. The only problem is…" Itachi trailed off in thought.

"Madara." Sakura finished his sentence for him.

"Hn." Itachi ran his fingers through his hair combing it from his sleep and tying it in a low ponytail.

"I need to speak with Shisui Sakura before I relay this proposal to Madara." Itachi patted her on the head and climbed out of bed.

Sakura nodded.

"Get some more sleep it's very late, or early yet, I'll let you know if anything changes, don't worry, this is a very good thing. I just need to speak with Shisui, we need to put some sort of plan together, Madara will not enter into this alliance willingly." Itachi pulled a shirt on over his head and tied his pants, slipping his feet into a pair of socks and climbing out of bed.

Sakura lay back down her head on his pillow, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. Itachi turned back to his bed looking at her softly.

"It will be okay Sakura." He leaned over his bed and kissed her gently.

"Itachi, about before, I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to use you in such a way." She couldn't quite meet his eyes.

"I understand Sakura. I know you are in love with Sasori. I'm still here for you, in case you need me." Itachi kissed her again, one last time on the mouth, his lips parted hers and his tongue slipped in. He ran his hands up along her face and into her hair.

"Just one more." He whispered into their kiss pulling her body into his, then abruptly let her go, she fell back into his bed and he left her without another word, the pain in his heart throbbing with every beat.

Itachi took several deep breaths on the way to Shisui's room. He knew Shisui had come to speak with him that night, he knew his cousin had seen Sakura in his bed with him, this wasn't going to be easy. Shisui was always smiling, but Itachi knew it was to hide the pain.

Sometimes the people who hurt the most laughed the loudest. Itachi didn't know how deep Shisui's feelings went for Sakura but he could guess. He only hoped they went deep enough, as his did, to overlook the petty situation they all found themselves in to do what was best for the girl.

"Shisui." Itachi knocked softly on the door before pushing it open and walking inside.

Shisui lay on his back, his face to the ceiling, eyes open.

"Itachi." He said.

"We need to talk, about Sakura and Sasori." Itachi sat on the end of his cousin's bed.

"Talk." Shisui said.

"Talk about how she is in your bed right now?" Shisui asked.

"She is in my bed, she came to me for, comfort, over Sasori." Itachi started to say calmly.

Shisui interrupted him with a snort," Comfort, I bet." Shisui sat up and almost glared at Itachi.

"Shisui, listen to me. Akasuna wants to form an alliance with the Uchiha." Itachi's words were met with silence.

"Madara will never agree to that." Shisui said ignoring the fact Sakura was in Itachi's bed and not his for the moment.

"I know, we need to figure out how to handle this situation, for Sakura. She loves him Shisui, not me, not you, not Sasuke." Itachi said slumping back against the bed wall.

Shisui thought for a minute. "Why you, why did she come to you then?"

"Tell me cousin, if she had come to you for comfort , crawled into your bed in the middle of the night, would you have been able to control yourself?" Itachi almost laughed at the idea.

"Oh, well, I would have tried." Shisui rubbed the back of his head, understanding dawning on him.

"She was vulnerable Shisui, she knew she could trust me to control myself." Iatchi turned his head to the door of the room.

"Did you?" Shisui grinned at him, animosity gone.

"Mostly." Itachi admitted.

"I let her kiss me and I kissed her one last time, just now. She loves him, not me." He said quietly.

The cousins sat there in the dark, in silence for a few looking out into the room, into nothing.

"We have to help her then, without the alliance, they don't have much of a future do they?" Shisui asked Itachi.

"Not one that includes all of us. Madara, will never accept Sasori, he would make her choose...and he wants her, you know." Itachi rubbed his face thinking.

"So, you mean...Itachi do you mean what I think?" Shisui looked at his cousin, a look of bemusement and wonder on his face.

"Hn." Itachi said quietly.

"It's time, we finally have a reason worth it don't we?" Itachi said.

"It's been years in the making...but yes, this is worth it, for her, the rest of the family, but Itachi...Obito." Shisui questioned.

"You might be surprised. He loves Sakura just as much as we do, and he has seen the madness building in Madara over the years. Remember Rin?" Itachi said.

"Yes." Shisui closed his eyes, he did remember.

"He will help us." Itachi spoke into the dark.

"You'll tell your parents?" Shisui sat up a little more in his bed.

"You tell Sasuke." Itachi got off the bed and headed to his parent's room.

"Got it." Shisui pulled a shirt on over his head as Itachi left the room.

Madara lay in his bed. Something was happening in the compound. He didn't know what it was but he had a feeling in his gut, something big was happening...without him and he didn't like it. He heard the soft foot fall pass the door to his room. His head turned to the door, Itachi. Itachi was moving toward his parent's room. Madara looked at the bedside clock 4am. What was the boy up to?

Itachi had always made Madara uneasy. He wasn't like the other Uchiha, he couldn't control the boy with fear, couldn't manipulate him, dominate him. He and his cousin Shisui were probably the only two uchiha would could challenge him openly and possibly win. Madara had kept a close eye on the boys over the years, tried to bring them in close to him, guide them, own them but they always resisted, always pulled back. He loathed to admit it but he hated them for it and he was sure Itachi knew it, if not Shisui.

He was up to something, Madara could feel it.

"Father." Itachi spoke softly over his parent's bed.

Fugaku's eyes snapped open, a knife in his hand.

"Father." Itachi spoke softly again letting his father know there was no threat.

"Itachi, what is it?" Fugaku swung his feet over the side of the bed and put on his socks rose and motioned to the sitting room connected to their bedroom.

Itachi followed his father into the small room as he shut the door.

"Akasuna's first commander called Sakura moments ago, Akasuna wants an alliance with the Uchiha." Itachi told his father bluntly.

Fugaku blinked at him, sat down, blinked again then turned to his son. A small smile crept onto the older man's face.

"For Sakura?" Fugaku couldn't help but smile.

"For insurance and for Sakura. It is a wise, surprising move on Akasuna's behalf." Itachi inclined his head to his father.

"Is it?" Fugaku looked at his son.

"Father?" Itachi inquired.

"You don't seem as surprised as you look son." Fugaku watched Itachi.

"It is what I would have done." Itachi admitted.

"So you agree. Madara, will never agree to work with the Sand." Fugaku said what they all knew.

"Madara need not be a part of it." Itachi spoke very softly.

Fugaku stared at his son hard. So, it has come to this already. The older man sighed.

"Let me speak to Obito." Fugaku conceded his assistance.

"Father, you know what this will do for both the Leaf and the Sand. It is a good move in more ways than one." Itachi reinforced his point.

"It was proposed a generation ago and vocaly denied by Madara when he first took charge of the family after his father's death. Sasori's father offered an alliance between the Uchiha and the Akasuna, we were both entering into the arms race then, both new, both powerful, we would have been unstoppable with our combined manpower, money and influence. Instead, Madara spurned the offer, created more hate than was needed by insulting Akasuna and starting the resulting clan war." Fugaku sighed.

"Many died needlessly, on both sides." Fugaku clenched his hands.

"My brothers." Itachi said.

"Rin." Fugaku said.

The men nodded to one another. The agreement was set.

Shisui made his way to Sasuke's room. Opened the door without knocking and sat on the end of the boy's bed.

"Sasuke." Shiusi sang into the dark room.

"Ugh." Sasuke rolled over in his sleep.

Shisui rolled his eyes.

"And he wonders why he can't run arms with the rest of us." Shisui laughs as he reaches out and slaps Sasuke's face slightly.

"Get off." Sasuke grumbles.

Shisui rolls his eyes again and puts a hand over Sasuke's mouth pressing hard and whispering in his ear, "Shut up idiot I need to speak with you without you waking the house, it's about Sakura."

Sasuke's eyes snap open and he nods. Shisui removes his hand and wipes it on his pant leg.

"Morning sleeping beauty." Shisui grins at the frowning Sasuke.

"What time is it?" Sasuke groans as he leans over to check the clock on his nightstand.

"It doesn't matter, look one of Sasori's commanders called Sakura a little bit ago, they want to form an alliance, Itachi is telling your parent's right now, we are going to accept it and work out terms." Shisui told Sasuke without pausing.

"Madara." Sasuke began but Shisui cut him off.

"Won't be an issue. Itachi is taking care of it." Shisui looked past the door of the bedroom and bit his lip once then let it go.

"Taking care of it?" Sasuke looked at the door with his cousin.

"Yes, stay in your room tonight, don't leave." Shisui rose from the bed.

"What?" But what if" Sasuke was cut off.

"What do you think this is Sasuke, a game? There are lives at stake, Sakura's included. You have seen the way our Uncle looks at her. She loves Sasori and he has asked us for our help. Do you know what that means to a man like him, in our line of work. This is nothing short of a fucking miriacle." Shisui leaned over his cousin gripping him hard by the front of his shirt.

"Stay. In. Your. Room. Do. Not. Leave." Shisui left the room without looking back.

Sasuke fell back onto his bed eyes wide."Shit."

Sakura was sitting up when Itachi returned to his room.

"Sakura." Itachi leaned against the back of the door to his room and watched the woman in his bed.

"Itachi, why are you doing this for me?" She asked him.

"You know why." He told her and walked to his desk to sit down at the desk chair, away from her.

"Thank you Itachi." She said quietly.

"I would do anything for you. Something Sasori and I seem to have in common." Itachi didn't meet her eyes.

"We haven't known one another long." She stammered as if surprised at how fast things have moved around her.

"When love is real, time doesn't matter. Nor distance." Itachi shrugged. He was tired.

"Madara." She started.

It seemed to be the theme for the night and Itachi smiled.

"I will take care of Madara Sakura." Itachi leaned back to stretch.

"You mean." She began but stopped.

"Hn." Itachi went to her then.

"This is all my fault." She whispered into the front of his shirt.

"No, this started over twenty years ago Sakura, it is not your fault, you are only the excuse." He hugged her and pet her hair.

"Rin, your brothers." She said into his chest.

"Hn." Itachi consoled her.

"Let it be so then." She shivered at the coolness in her own voice.

Fugaku made his way to the back of the house where Obito was making his rounds.

"Obito." Fugaku began.

"I know." Obito said.

Fugaku hesitated.

"I tap all phones Fugaku sama, I know about the proposal from Akasuna and can assume why you have come to speak with me." Obito inclined his head to Fugaku.

Obito was a quiet man, who typically kept to himself. He was also a very intelligent man who watched and waited, acting only when he was needed. He was also a broken man, since Rin's death.

"I am with the main family house Fugaku Sama. I will not get in Itachi's way." Obito turned then and walked away leaving Fugaku looking after him.

Fugaku let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Thank you."

Fugaku turned and went back into the main house, his wife would be waiting for him eager for news.

Madara finished dressing, tucking his gun into his holster, strapping his knife to his leg and made his way through the main part of the house to Itachi's room.

Itachi heard him before he could knock on the door or open it. He threw the blankets up and over Sakura's head pushing her down in between the bed and the wall, she fell to the floor with a small thunk.

"Be still." Itachi's voice came to her from above.

"Come in Uncle, I know you're there." Itachi's voice rang out strong and confident.


	14. Chapter 14

"Good evening Uncle." Itachi greeted Madara as he entered the room and flicked on the lights.

"Itachi." Madara stood with his back to the door which he had closed behind him.

"There seems to be a lot of activity in the house tonight nephew." Madara fixed his nephew with a pointed stare.

Itachi inclined his head as he sat on his bed watching his Uncle with relaxed eyes.

"There is indeed uncle, Sasori's first commander called Sakura moments ago requesting an alliance." Itachi told his Uncle.

Madara's brows rose to their maximum height, he hadn't been expecting this.

"Why did you not tell me right away, why did you not let me speak to his commander?" Madara demanded.

"Would it have made a difference? You will not agree to an alliance, you didn't then, you won't now." Itachi continued to watch his Uncle closely.

Madara literally scoffed, "Of course not, but I would have liked to speak to him, it is my right." Madara said dangerously.

Itachi cocked his head to the side considering his Uncle's visit to his room.

"I didn't think you would want to be bothered." Itachi rose from his seat on his bed moving away from Sakura, where she was hidden against the wall to the desk.

"I'm not interested in an alliance with Suna, and I never will be, particularly when he is interested in my woman." Madara said boldly.

"Sakura is not yours, she is too young for you besides." Itachi spoke quietly.

"She isn't yours, nor Sasuke's or Shisui's, she is free for me to claim." Madara spoke haughtily.

"She is Sasori's and if not his, she would not choose you." Itachi stood still.

"Jealousy doesn't suit you Itachi, but I wonder, where does this stem from." The older man closed the distance between the two.

Itachi looked impassively at his Uncle, not intimidated by the gesture in the least.

"Have you by chance taken liberties of the young woman?" I know you watch her, like Shisui, like Sasuke." Madara growled.

"Do not speak of her in such a way, even if it is true, your insinuation is clear Uncle." Itachi would not deny the obvious, it would be foolish.

"She is with Sasori, not you, she has made her choice." Itachi said.

"Women don't often know what they want, they need men to tell them. Clearly she is no different, she chose our enemy, the son of a man we are at war with, she is practically a traitor." His uncle leaned against the wall, his tone condescending and smug.

"Sakura is special." Itachi replied, heat growing in his face.

"Whatever you may think she is, it doesn't matter, as it doesn't matter in terms of an alliance. I am the head of this clan and I will make no such alliance." Madara turned to leave the room.

"You condemn us all to death then. Sasori of the Red Sand has weaponized a virus that could kill the entire population of the world, our clan most certainly included, and tonight it was stolen, by Orochimaru." Itachi let the ball drop into Madara's court, heavy and full of death.

Madara stopped, his hand on the knob and turned back to his Nephew.

"So, that's it, not the woman but the weapon." Madara laughed.

"What will you do now?" Itachi asked him.

"What is there to do, we will get to the weapon before Sasori, I assume he has already left." Madara was thinking hard.

"You will not accept an alliance even in the face of a global killer?" Itachi was almost...almost astounded.

"Your arrogance knows no bounds Uncle, you would condemn the world to death for your pride." Itachi said heatedly for the first time.

"Know your place.' Madara hissed cooly in his nephew's face.

Sakura clenched her fists from the floor of Itachi's room. A global killer, oh Sasori, she thought, why, why did you make such a thing? Who was Orochimaru, and what would he do with it? Why wouldn't Madara agree to an alliance with this new knowledge? She bit her lip and cried tears of anger and frustration silently. Itachi had told her to be still, she was trying.

"You are not fit to run this clan, you lead us all to our deaths." Itachi spoke angrily.

Madara raised his hand to backhand Itachi but his strike was blocked. Itachi spun with his grasp on the older man's wrist pulling it up and behind his back and forcing him against the wall.

"You dare touch me!" Madara growled, his other hand pulling his gun and pointing it into Itachi's side.

Itachi dropped to the floor to avoid the shot as it rang out into the dark house. Rolling off to the side and jumping to his feet, knife in hand Itachi ducked low avoiding the knife of his Uncle and came in from the other side hand low, blade up, slashing Madara up across the chest.

Sakura crawled on her tummy under the bed and watched their feet in horror as blood fell to the floor inches from her face. She couldn't tell from her position whose blood it was and looked around frantically for anything she could find. She felt along the bottom of Itachi's mattress well aware he had kept weapons there in the past and found what she was looking for.

Madara hissed at the burn of the blade across his chest. "You die tonight Itachi." he grit out in between hisses as he lunged at the younger man, pinning him to the ground.

Sakura pressed the safety on the gun , pointed and shot. Madara;s body twitched on top of Itachi's once, twice, his eyes wide he turned his head to look at her. Green eyes met coal.

"Sakura?" Madara's voice came shocked and soft across the floor before he slumped into death.

Itachi pushed the man from his chest, bent, and pulled the pink haired girl out from under his bed holding her tight in his arms as she fell apart.

Shisui and Fugaku rushed into the room followed closely by Obito, guns drawn. They looked to the body of Madara on the floor of the room and looked to Sakura and Itachi.

"So, it's done." Obito sighed and slumped against the wall sliding down it slowly to a sitting position on the floor.

"Well done son." Fugaku patted his son on the shoulder.

"It wasn't me." Itachi said quietly.

Shisui's head spun to look from Madara's body to Sakura in amazement.

"I." She stammered. "I did it." She closed her eyes and buried her face in Itachi's chest.

"I'm sorry." She cried.

Fugaku was already on the phone by the time Sakura and Itachi came into the living room. Mikoto poured Sakura a cup of tea and smoothed her hair down for her while she drank it trying to comfort the girl.

"We will leave at once." Itachi spoke into the phone.

"Sakura, you will stay here with mother and Sasuke, Shisui, father and I will head our teams to meet up at the border of Oto with Sasori." Itachi hugged her one armed and left the room.

Sasuke who was now out of his room and filled in on the death of their uncle frowned. "I should go with you, to help."

"You will stay here and protect your mother and Sakura." Fugaku turned to his second born with a glare.

"Sakura will most likely be the one protecting Sasuke Uncle." Shisui grinned at the older man and received a glare in return.

"I will stay with the women Fugaku Sama." Obito rose to stand by Mikoto and Sakura who were still on the couch. Fugaku nodded.

"We leave in ten minutes, meet me by the gate." Fugaku spared his wife a quick glance and left the room.

"It's like you are preparing for war." Sakura mumbled into her tea.

"This is war Sakura, our war. Orochimaru is evil, he is...a demon in human form." Obito clenched his teeth.

"Don't worry." he told her lamely and walked out of the room to meet the others by the gate.

Sasori hung up the phone after speaking with Baki. He closed his eyes briefly, they were almost to the border of Oto, they would wait for the Uchiha there. He opened his eyes and allowed himself a brief smile before dialing her number.

Sakura's phone rang with a number she didn't recognize. Mikoto watched her frown at her phone.

"Who is it dear?" She asked the girl.

"I don't know, I don't recognize the number." Sakura said.

"Allow me dear." Mikoto held her hand out for the phone.

"Hello? Mikoto asked the caller.

"Madam Uchiha, I recognize your voice from our taps. This is Akasuna no Sasori madam, may I please speak with my intended?" Sasori said politely.

"Your intended?" Mikoto's eyes opened wide and she turned to Sakura who broke into a gleeful smile.

"Of of course!" Mikoto handed the phone to Sakura a hidden smile on her face.

"Sasori! Oh Sasori I was so worried, where are you? Are you okay? When will you come home, I miss you so much." Sakura's words spilled from her mouth before she could stop herself.

"I miss you too Sakura. We are waiting for the Uchiha now, it won't be long. They don't have to traverse the desert so their time will be cut in half. We move to Oto as soon as they get here. I wanted to call you, to hear your voice. Are you well?" He asked her.

"I, oh Sasori," She burst into tears." I killed Madara Sasori." She cried into the phone.

There was silence, then loud chuckling filled her ear.

"That's my doll. Good girl." He said to her surprise and admiration in his voice.

"It was horrible." She she told him.

"You're a warrior dear, I told you before, you are strong. I'm very proud of you." Sasori's voice came to her over the phone.

"I have to go, I will be home soon." He said.

"Sasori is it true, did you make something that could destroy the world?" She asked unsure if she really wanted to know.

"No." He replied. "Not the world Sakura, only the people in it." He sighed.

"But." She began.

"It was before we met, before, I knew I wanted you. Before you loved me." He said honestly.

"Before I knew I loved you. I told you once, there was very little I had to live for. I was lost." He admitted.

"I will see you soon. I have to go." He said.

"I love you Sasori. Be safe." Sakura cried into the phone.

"I love you." he hung up.

Sakura set the phone down in her lap and sobbed.

Mikoto watched her for a moment before hugging her.

"The men go out and do all these exciting dangerous things but they never once realize, we always have the hardest job, us women, we wait and hope they come home to us. We pick up the pieces they scatter carelessly around, broken bloody and bruised. What would they ever do without us?" She smiled at the younger woman who had stopped crying and was rubbing her eyes.

"Die horribly painful deaths full of regret and loneliness." Sakura tried to laugh.

"Be strong, he will return to you." Mikoto filled their tea cups and left to make more.

Sasuke watched Sakura as she sipped her tea.

"I'm sorry Sakura." Sasuke said interrupting her thoughts.

"For what?" She asked him.

"For doubting him." He looked at her, he could tell she was scared, worried, all for him, for Sasori.

"You were just looking out for me." She smiled in appreciation.

"You deserve better than me, better than him but if he makes you happy. I guess, I can be okay with it." Sasuke huffed a little and crossed his arms.

"Thank you Sasuke." She smiled at him.

"Hn." He blushed at her smile and picked up his own cup of tea and sipped.

Obito walked back into the room then and sat down on the couch next to Sakura.

"So, when's the wedding?" He smiled a little Obito smile at her.

"He has to come back first, with my brothers and my cousin." She said.

Sasuke looked up from his tea.

"You've never said it before. We have always called you family but not until just now, did you notice Sakura? You called us brothers and Shisui your cousin." He smiled at her.

"Murder brings people closer." She tried to make a joke but it came out flat.

"It does." Obito watched her.

"You don't need to regret it Sakura. Swallow it and move on. If you hadn't killed Madara, it would have been Itachi, or myself, there were too many other's lives at stake." Obito patted her on the leg trying to reassure her.

"Hn." she said making them laugh.

"Akasuna." Itachi inclined his head to Sasori in greeting.

"Uchiha." Sasori inclined his head to Itachi.

Shisui eyed the man before him with interest. Sasori felt his eyes on him and turned to face him inclining his head.

"Uchiha Shisui." Shisui introduced himself.

"It's a pleasure." Sasori bowed slightly.

"So, you're the man that stole the heart of my little flower are you?" Shisui grinned at the redhead.

"Shisui." Itachi warned.

"Your flower?" Sasori's eyes narrowed.

"Please excuse Shisui, I am Uchiha Fugaku." Fugaku introduced himself.

Sasori gave Shisui one last hard look before turning to the man in front of him.

"A pleasure Fugaku san." Sasori bowed his head in the other man's direction.

"If you will follow me." Sasori motioned to the tent they had set up on the border of Fire and Sound.

"My first commander Baki." Sasori gestured to the man waiting just inside the tent.

"A pleasure to put a face to the voice." Itachi inclined his head to Baki.

"Sir." Baki bowed low.

Sasori waved his hand to the chairs at the table where blueprints were laid out along with some other small notes, pictures and hand written missives.

"This is what I have so far. Itachi, I would value your perspective." Amber eyes met coal in full understanding.

The men nodded and bent to their work.

Orochimaru stood before the metal box a gleam in his eye. Kabuto watched as his master undid the latch and pulled the whole device from the oil.

"Are you sure that's wise Orochimaru sama, the oil keeps the device from the air does it not? There are chemicals that upon connecting to air, infuse and ignite, it is safe to assume this would be one such device." Kabuto did not agree with his master tampering with one of Sasori's designs.

"What's wrong Kabuto? Don't you trust me?" Orochimaru turned to his assistant with a wicked smile on his face.

The truth was, Kabuto admired the man, he was a genius, he broke the boundaries of life and death, but trust him...no Kabuto didn't trust him. Particularly with a device that could destroy all mankind.


	15. Chapter 15

Itachi looked at his watch as he waited for the rest of them to catch up. Sasori's plan was simple and ingenious he had to admit, no wonder he had never been able to assassinate the man.

Sasori smiled as he shook his head. The Uchiha was indeed impressive, no wonder all the assassins he had sent after the man had failed and died by his hand.

It had only taken 10 minutes, Shisui grinned as he made his way to his Jeep. Ten minutes, and the two fucking geniuses had come up with a fucking fool proof plan.

"We should have made this alliance years ago." Shisui told Fugaku as they climbed into their vehicle.

"I was all for it back then but well, you know Madara." Fugaku smiled as he checked his phone.

"With Madara gone, who is going to lead the family, I assume it will be you." Shisui tried to be conversational about it, he wasn't fooling the older man.

"I think we both know I'm not cut out for the position, Itachi, it has always been Itach who would replace Madara, but you knew that already Shisui. Do us both a favor, it's going to be a long night as it is, don't bother me with useless conversation hum?" Fugaku cuffed the younger man on the chin in jest.

Shisui ducked his head and grinned wider,"You got it old man."

Sasori had left first as planned, Itachi second. They would trip and dismantle the alarms, the two Suna teams would search and eliminate the defense teams and the two teams that had arrived from Konoha at Itachi's belated request would sweep and secure the area after the initial attack upon arrival.

Sasori and Itachi would take out Orochimaru and Kabuto together, after the box was secured. Itachi and Sasori had agreed the box would most likely be with either Kabuto or Orochimaru, and that both of their skills were needed to get it back.

Itachi scaled the wall of the tower to the East gate of the compound where Orochimaru's lab was supposed to be. Sasori dropped down through a window to the storage rooms of the compound. At this point, it was anyone's guess where the box could be.

The radio buzzed in Itachi's ear, the gates had been secured, the perimeter was under the control of the Suna teams, Konoha had just arrived and was starting the sweep.

"Push them West if you are able" Itachi said into his radio.

"Yes Sir." A voice in his ear chirped.

"North west." Sasori added.

"Yes Sir." The voice confirmed they had heard the new direction.

"Moving to your location Sasori." Itachi told him.

"Got it." Sasori confirmed he had heard Itachi.

Kabuto ran into the main lab where Orochimaru stood with the opened box, the parts of the device laid out on towels as the man gently unscrewed another piece and set it aside.

"Orochimaru sama, Akasuna has breached the outer walls of the compound and...the Uchiha are with him!" Kabuto said breathlessly to the pale skinned man.

"Really." Orochimaru didn't pause in his work as he replied.

Orochimaru pulled the small vial from the inside of the device and held it up to the light. "Finally."

"Is that, is that the virus Orochimaru sama?" Kabuto came up beside the man and stared at the vial in both wonder and maybe a little fright.

"It is." The man's yellow eyes glowed brightly for a moment as he tucked the vial into his shirt pocket and closed the box.

"Sasori underestimated me. I retrieved the vial without any trouble at all." He hissed his pleasure at his accomplishment.

"Did I?" Sasori spoke from the shadows.

"Ah Sasori, I was wondering when you would show yourself." Orochimaru turned to face the red haired man, he didn't seem at all shocked to hear Sasori's voice so close at hand.

"I'm afraid you're too late. Your incredibly dangerous virus is in my possession and I have dismantled the trap you so cleverly placed it in." Orochimaru hummed in amusement.

"You're arrogance is your downfall, it is as I predicted all those years ago when we were in the Akatsuki together Orochimaru...you are a fool." Sasori smiled then, a slight smile.

The smile was not lost on Orochimaru who did in fact know Sasori a little.

"What did you do?" Orochimaru's voice rose and Kabuto made a quick glance between the two men.

"Don't you feel it? It was in the oil, not the vial." Sasori took a step forward into the light. His amber eyes flashed with malice, and his teeth shown white and sharp as he grinned a toothy grin.

"The oil." Kabuto whispered.

"Yes." Sasori didn't take his eyes from Orochimaru, whose face drained of what little color it had.

"You, you...you poisoned the oil." Orochimaru laughed hysterically, madly.

"The antidote?" Orochimaru's eyes were slitted, like snakes.

"Since when do I make antidotes to my poisons…" Sasori drawled as if he were already bored of the conversation.

Orochimaru's hands began to shake as he stumbled forward onto the table. His hands spread along the surface slipping in the oil over the towels and little parts that he had pulled from the device.

"The device…" Orochimaru gasped as his breathing became choked.

"A decoy of course." Sasori strolled into the room , eyes bland and impersonal as he looked at the dying man.

"The vial." Orochimaru asked pulling the small vial from his shirt.

"Is real." Sasori plucked the vial from the man's hands before he could drop it with a tissue and wrapped it before tucking it into his own shirt.

Orochimaru fell to the ground at Sasori's feet gasping for air.

"You lungs are failing, you are suffocation. Goodbye Orochimaru." Sasori looked down at the man annoyed he was taking so long to die.

Kabuto made his way slowly to the door while Sasori was distracted by the dying Orochimaru.

Itachi jumped down from the window he had been hiding in and stabbed Kabuto under the rib, through his lung.

"You may join your master." Itachi let the man drop to the floor gasping for breath.

Sasori turned to Itachi, "Shall we strip it?"

"Hn." Itachi nodded and they set to work.

30 minutes later Sasori took his phone from Baki and called Sakura.

5 hours later they entered the Uchiha compound and he hugged Sakura.

One day later they woke together in Sakura's apartment in one another's arms.

"I never thought, it just,"Sakura paused,"It seemed like a lifetime ago we were last here, you and I in my bed. So much has happened." She laughed a little shakily.

Sasori tucked her head under his chin and kissed her ear as she lay on his chest.

"I told you I would come back to you." He stroked her bare back with his hands.

She shivered at his touch,"I know, but it just seems so unreal."

"I'm sorry you worried, it's over now though." He assured her.

"Are you okay with this, with how things turned out?" She asked him looking up at him.

"I never wanted that life, it was my father's dream , not mine." He told her and kissed her nose.

She dropped her head back to his chest and snuggled in closer to him breathing his scent in through her nose.

"Are you ready?" He asked her, wrapping his arms around her stilling his strokes.

"Ready for what?" She asked him not looking up at him.

"For the rest of our lives?" He smiled and she giggled.

"Yes." She smiled.

What Sasori told Sakura was true, he had never wanted the life his father had forced him into. He didn't mind the torture and the scientific aspects that had come with his job but he could do without it, for her.

The alliance between the Akasuna and the Uchiha was a simple one. Sasori and Itachi would both run their operations separately, coming to one another's aide when called upon. Both ceased the distribution and development of illegal drugs and human organ trafficking after selling off the remaining stores.

After dividing the profits from the remaining sale they opened a hospital between Suna and Konoha that Sakura ran once she had graduated from med school with the help of her best friend's Ino Yamanaka and Sasuke Uchiha.

Although Sasori still ran illegal arms and other weapons of mass destruction he created, his life had dulled down considerably. He and Sakura got married two years later, it was the talk of nations near and far.

Itachi never married much to Sasori's annoyance and Sakura's surprise. Shisui settled for a minor Uchiha cousin that looked suspiciously like Sakura with black hair and Sasuke announced he was gay a year later and married a nice Suna boy soon after.

Sakura never found out Sasori had been responsible for Sasuke's infedelity but with him being gay now it didn't seem to matter.

Madara was buried quietly in the old district of the compound, a granite headstone marked his place among the many other Uchiha clan heads of their time. Sakura was the only one to vist, laying flowers annualy on the day of his murder. She felt it was her duty and obligation. That is where Sasori found her one rainy day three years after their marriage.

"Sakura, you'll get ill, come dear, Mikoto has dinner waiting for us, and it isn't good for the baby." He wrapped an arm around her as much as he could in her advanced pregnancy.

Sakura sniffed a little, "I'm sorry, I just. I don't regret it, but I can't forget." She turned to her husband and let him hug her wrapping a blanket around her that he had brought out with him.

"Then remember." He said softly into her ear, kissed her and led her away, back to the main house for dinner.

End.


End file.
